Foxes Hunt The Hounds
by Le Fez-Wearing Husky
Summary: The citizens of the triple-walled metropolis of Dreimauer are divided into two groups – the Vulpes and the Canes - who are segregated by race. Eren Jaeger is a young, rebellious Vulpis who seeks to liberate himself and his fellow Vulpes from the oppression of the Canes. But when a member of that very same loathed species comes to Eren's aid, things get a whole lot more complicated.
1. Chapter 1: Convergence

**Thank you for taking an interest in this oddball fanfiction of mine.~ I will warn you now that it's a completely crazy idea that just happened to enter my head one morning. If the description failed to make this clear, this is set in a steampunk-themed AU in which the SNK characters live in a society that segregates between Vulpes (creatures that are a bit like fox-human hybrids) and Canes (dog-human hybrids). There are no Titans, I'm afraid, but I do hope that you enjoy this story and any reviews will be very much appreciated! I'd love to know what you think of it and whether I should continue it or not. Anyway, here are your warnings for this fic: **

**Rated M for later chapters. I won't give any spoilers here but there will be some dark stuff happening. You have been warned.**

**Eventual Ereri, and possibly other pairings as well, though I won't give too much away at this stage.~**

**Partially inspired by the song "Young Volcanoes" by Fall Out Boy.**

**And of course, the inevitable disclaimer: I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan or any of its characters. I'm just one of the many obsessive idiots on the interwebs who enjoy writing fantastical stories about Isayama-san's creation.**

**And without further ado, let us begin!**

* * *

_"Tonight, the foxes hunt the hounds_

_And it's all over now_

_Before we have begun_

_We've already won."_

**_-"Young Volcanoes", Fall Out Boy_**

* * *

**Chapter One: Convergence**

Steam gushed through the exhaust turrets of the throbbing train as it grinded along the tracks, creating a pale cloud that appeared to spread out and hover over the roofless station. Detritus swirled in miniature tornadoes that swept through the area, carrying the soiled rubbish over the heads of the impatient Vulpes that crowded together on the platform.

"Gee, that must be a new record," Eren Jaeger grunted dismally as he watched the train shudder to a gradual halt, the mechanism creaking painfully. "What's their excuse this time? Don't tell me the damn thing broke down halfway to Wall Maria again." He felt his ears twitch in agitation. _No wonder we're always late to school…_

"W-well, it's a common occurrence," Armin piped up. The short blond Vulpis was at Eren's right-hand side, pressed so tightly into the crowd that he could barely shift an inch. "After all, the government doesn't exactly see the maintenance of trains in Vulpis districts as their highest priority…"

"Ugh. Typical Canes," Eren spat. "They only ever care about themselves. They don't have the faintest idea what it's like in our world…"

Mikasa Ackerman said nothing, her face set in its usual deadpan expression. She hardly needed words to show she agreed with Eren's statement; her profoundly deep grey eyes said everything. If anyone knew just how ruthless the ruling class of Dreimauer could be, it was her.

The three friends squeezed onto the cramped train carriage, which just about managed to accommodate their bushy tails in addition to their bodies. Eren tightly gripped an iron hook set into the ceiling of the carriage beside his friends, who had managed to bag the last two seats.

Armin was staring at a large, brass-rimmed pocket watch that he had produced from the breast pocket of his beige jacket. "At this rate, we'll be almost half an hour late," he muttered sadly. "They'll punish us for sure."

"Whatever," Eren responded dismissively. "It's not like they've never caned us before…" He frowned, his thick umber eyebrows furrowing. "Hey, Armin. You should put that away before someone sees it."

"Huh? This old thing?" Armin looked surprised. "It's not very valuable, Eren. Just an old keepsake from my grandfather. It tells the time just fine, but it's not in that great condition…" He showed Eren the narrow crack that ran across the watch's glass surface. "It's not anything that someone would bother to steal."

"You're right," admitted Eren, "but the drought's made people here pretty desperate, hasn't it?"

"You have a point." Armin sighed as the two of them turned to Mikasa, who was in turn gazing wistfully at the barren landscape - in which only a few withered clusters of wheat stems sprouted from the cracked soil.

"We get less and less harvest every year," she mused. "Eventually there will be nothing left, and the Canes will simply leave us to starve."

Eren gritted his teeth. "There's no way I'll ever let that happen. _All _of those bastards will die before I let a single one of our own die from this stupid famine."

"Ssh!" Armin and Mikasa hushed Eren, their warning almost being drowned out by the shouts of the conductor in the background.

"Huh?" Eren muttered, confused. "Why are you two so paranoid? It's not like there are ever any Canes in Shiganshina. It's just another lousy agricultural Vulpis district to them."

"Yes, but… well…" A hiss of steam punctuated Armin's words as the train prepared to take off. "You never know who might be listening. The government is prepared to take any measures to quash Vulpis rebellion, and that includes hiring Vulpes to spy on their own kind."

Eren scowled. "Traitors like that aren't worthy of being called Vulpes. I don't understand why any Vulpis would ever do that, Armin. You sure those aren't just rumours?"

"No, not really," the blond admitted. "But most Vulpes aren't like you, Eren. They're perfectly content living under Canis rule, so long as they're able to live in peace among their families and lead ordinary, law-abiding lives."

Eren's forest-green eyes were fixated on the metallic floor of the train. "But that's not _true _peace. That's not true freedom," he muttered.

The young Vulpis almost stumbled as the train shifted beneath him. He looked up, as he had so many times before, and watched as Wall Maria was rapidly reduced into a grey-brown bar on the horizon. The wheat fields of Shiganshina quickly blazed past, before dissolving into the greenery and red-gold of a natural pine forest. Eren was so lost in his thoughts, he barely noticed the train stopping, and only just managed to adjust his balance in time before he almost slammed face-first into the iron-plated flooring.

The seats opposite Armin and Mikasa were vacated as a middle-aged couple stood up to leave, and Eren sat down heavily next to the window. The view that greeted him outside the glass was an industrial zone – factories and pylons crowded in among blackened shacks. Numerous chimneys emitted an odious dark substance into the air, which collected into clouds that writhed like swarms of angry black wasps. Although he'd passed through this district many times before, he couldn't help but feel sorry for its citizens. _The conditions in Shiganshina are pretty terrible, that's true, but at least I'm not breathing in chemical smog twenty-four seven. _Also, this district happened to be one of the Vulpis districts that were directly overseen and governed by Canes. The citizens of Shiganshina were extremely poor and were only able to eat less than a quarter of their own crop, for economic and legal reasons. But at least they didn't have a Canis overlord constantly breathing down their necks, as the inhabitants of this particular district did.

"Is this seat taken?"

Eren was snapped out of his stupor by the question. He turned his head to see a fairly young male Vulpis – perhaps in his late twenties – with a head of shiny, slicked black hair and a slight scowl upon his features. Despite his age, he was shorter even than Armin, though he still seemed imposing. Perhaps it was his dress code – mostly black, yet untainted by the smog; a bowler hat concealed his ears from view as a heavy black coat swathed the rest of his body; and a spotless white cravat poked out from between his lapels. His impassive grey eyes bored into Eren's.

"Uh, nope," Eren replied, rather unsettled by the other Vulpis's gaze. But as the newcomer settled down next to him, he immediately regretted admitting the truth. The grey-eyed Vulpis reeked of some sort of sterile chemical – the stench was so strong that it concealed his natural scent. The umber-haired teenager wrinkled his nose, trying not to inhale the sharp, acrid aroma. _Does this guy even have a sense of smell? _he mused in distaste.

But his stink only contributed. The dark-haired Vulpis appeared uncomfortable in his position, casting frowning glances at Eren, Armin and Mikasa in turn. "Tch," he grumbled, "just my luck to end up next to a bunch of teenage brats."

Eren barely thought before he responded. "Well, maybe I don't like sitting next to a stinking adult like you!" he exploded vehemently.

The other occupants of the carriage looked over at Eren's outburst. One elderly Vulpis peered over the rim of his newspaper to view what was going on.

Eren felt his face sting as the stranger's palm suddenly impacted on his cheek. "Did no one ever teach you to respect your elders?" he thundered. "Ignorant brat."

Eren wanted to return the slap threefold, but Mikasa reached out and grabbed his hand before he could do so. Eren gritted his teeth – Mikasa's grip was like an iron vice. She stared threateningly at the short Vulpis.

"I apologise for my brother's behaviour, sir." But the female Vulpis hardly sounded apologetic in her tone. In fact, her sentence carried an undertone of _"But if you touch him again, I won't hesitate to kill you."_

Her adversary barely acknowledged her. Since Eren was still imprisoned by Mikasa, he resorted instead to glaring at the short Vulpis with all his might. Of course, the stranger simply ignored him.

Eventually, the younger Vulpis gave up, staring at the blurred scenery outside without truly seeing it. Armin made a few attempts to resume the conversation, but each proved futile. None of them felt comfortable with that strange Vulpis in such close proximity, and Eren was far too frustrated to talk.

It seemed as though an age had passed by the time the train finally pulled up at the boundary district of Trost – their destination.

"Finally," Eren grunted, casting one last glance of utter contempt in the dark-haired Vulpis's direction. The latter returned the disdainful look, before sweeping out of the train and onto the platform without another word – save for another characteristic "Tch" that escaped his lips.

"Eren." Mikasa turned towards him. Despite her stoic expression, her eyes were filled with concern. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you badly?"

"No," Eren admitted as he pushed himself off his seat. His cheek still ached from the impact, however. He didn't like to admit it, but it had been a powerful blow for such a small Vulpis – stronger even than perhaps Eren was capable of.

Dazed and rather irritated, he stepped off onto the platform, ignoring his friends' worried glances. He barely registered the soles of his shoes touching the paved ground. He scanned the press of Vulpes cluttering the platform, but there was no sign of the bowler hat and cravat that he could see.

Eren touched his cheek, his face still set into a deep scowl. "Just who was that guy? Honestly, some people are just as bad as Canes…" As he spoke, a sudden thought rushed into his mind, and he turned to the blond beside him. "Armin, do you think he could be…?"

"It's too early to assume things, Eren," Armin replied. "Though… he _did _seem rather dubious. The way he covered his ears, and his scent… that detergent could have been acting as some sort of smokescreen…" He shook his head. "But then again, it might not have anything to do with that…"

"You need to watch your mouth, Eren," Mikasa added sternly. "It's what always gets you into trouble. His reaction was overkill, for sure, but I just don't want you getting into any danger."

"Yeah, I know," the brunette teenager grumbled without really hearing or contemplating Mikasa's words.

The three youths gradually edged their way through the crowd. Trost Central Station was unrealistically busy, as usual; Vulpes of every age, height or colour were packed onto every square metre of the platform; either languorously waiting for the next battered train to arrive or frantically rushing towards the exit. Eren, Armin and Mikasa were part of the latter group.

Out of habit, Eren glanced upwards at the dark marble clock tower that ascended rather majestically from the opposite platform like a black mountain jutting up from the ground. Reading off the time from its dish-sized crystal face, Eren could see that he was already almost forty-five minutes late for school, but that wasn't what bothered him.

Two sets of steel tracks and a chasm of stony gravel separated the two halves of the station. The gap was only about twenty metres across, but it might as well have been two hundred miles. No Vulpis was ever allowed to cross onto that platform, as it led to strictly Canis-only territory. The entire district of Trost, in fact, was split down the middle, with the train station at the centre of the fissure; Canis on one side and Vulpis on the other, with the train tracks and a double set of iron fences inbetween.

Trost was the only district of its kind in Dreimauer – one where both communities happened to reside parallel to one another; so close, and yet so far apart.

Eren's frown deepened. _I feel sorry for the Vulpes who leave here too, _he decided. _It must be terrible living practically next door to the enemy._

_The enemy… _As Eren continued to shuffle through the thick swarm around him, he recalled what Armin had said earlier, just before the train left Shiganshina – that the enemy may well be all around them. He, too, seemed convinced that that strange Vulpis had some sort of dodgy disguise act on.

_Could he really be a spy for the government? _Eren wondered. _Is he really a Canis… in the fur of a Vulpis?_

He gingerly rubbed the area of skin where he had been slapped. It was still stinging, just slightly.

_If he is, I'll give him more than just pain the next time I see him…_


	2. Chapter 2: Divergence

**Chapter Two: Divergence**

The sun was spreading vermillion rays across the horizon as Eren and his two friends left the large brick building that housed their school. But that was to be expected, as it was at this time mid-autumn.

Already, the shadows that sliced across Vulpis Trost's small central plaza were deepening, and a small sliver of the moon's surface could just be made out in the darkening sky.

Eren was in a foul mood, as he usually was by the time he finished school. He hated everything about the school, with the exception of his two friends. He hated the teachers, and not just because many of them were far too liberal with their canes; what he hated the most about them was that they acted as if they were barely sentient. They droned on and on, repeating themselves over and over, like some kind of programmed machine. And the worst thing? Despite being Vulpes, they told everything from a Canis perspective. And they weren't even subtle with it. They constantly told the students that they had their place, and nothing could change that; and some even went so far to say that they should be _grateful _to the Canes for "protecting" them within the walls of the city. They pointed out that it was the same Canis government that had passed a Vulpis Slavery Abolition Act nine decades previously, making Vulpis slavery illegal within the confines of Dreimauer. But, according to Eren's father (who, during his travels to contact patients in different districts, had picked up a few historical facts), the price of that one law had been paid in the blood of almost a million Vulpis lives.

_Seriously, are all of them too cowardly to say what they really think and feel? Would they all really rather be manipulated by the Canes… just for a tiny bit of money and a safe, carefree life?_

_Some people really are as bad as Canes, _he mentally spat.

His friends sensed his mood without him even having to say anything. "I know," Armin muttered empathetically. "It's frustrating, and-"

"'-there's nothing we can do about it?'" Eren spat again. "Wrong. You're always able to _do _something, Armin. It just depends on how much of a risk you're willing to take, how much you're prepared to sacrifice…" By now, his voice was vibrating uncontrollably with sheer passion. "Th… the fact that we're h-helpless… is merely an illusion created by the Canes!" The brunette was practically shouting at this point. "A-and… we… we have the power to fight back, to overthrow them, to rise up! Th-there are more Vulpes outside Wall Sina alone than there are Canes in the entire fucking city of Dr-Driemauer! W-we can do this. E-everyone's just too stupid, or too scared, to see…"

"Eren," Mikasa broke in. "You really need to keep your voice down."

The young Vulpis blinked, emerald eyes panning the plaza. Sure enough, several assorted pairs of eyes were staring in his direction, each carrying a multitude of mixed expressions.

"No way, Mikasa," Eren grumbled. "There's no way there are any Canes here…"

The noirette gave him a pointed look. "Are you sure?"

"Yes!" the young male growled. _Though, there was that midget on the train… he was definitely acting strangely. And the more I think about it, the more he seemed to behave as if we were inferior to him. Just like a Canis…_

Eren's thoughts were then interrupted by a sudden voice that almost pierced the air with its sharp smugness.

"Oh, if it isn't Sir Sore Posterior and his motley crew!" Jean Kirstein greeted mockingly as he strode up towards them. Despite being the same age as Eren, Jean was at least a head taller – plus half a head if you counted the height of his ears, which poked up from a field of short chestnut hair. As usual, an omnipresent smug grin was pasted over the lower half of his face.

"So, Jeager, I take it you're still failing at life?"

Eren looked away, irritated but otherwise unperturbed. "No, Kirstein, I think you'll find that _you're_ the one who's failing at life."

Jean appeared shocked at this statement. "What do you mean?! You barely ever learn _anything. _You just spend the entire time trying to act like a little know-it-all and then you just get whipped for it. Well, newsflash! Your future isn't going to get handed to you on a lovely little plate, now is it?" He chortled. "Well, I suppose not all of us are destined for greater things, eh?"

The brunette turned back around to shoot an intense glare at Jean. "What 'greater things'?"

"Oh, you know, the usual," Jean replied haughtily. "I'm going to leave this shitty district once I graduate and go to the interior. Yes, you heard right, Jeager, the fucking _interior! _I'll get a job – a _proper _job, mind you, not some slave's work down some mine – and then I'll work my way up. Who knows? Perhaps one day, I could be mayor of my own district!" He burst into arrogant laughter, clearly expecting the other three to be jealous of his ambitions.

"But you do know, right, Jean, that beyond Wall Sina… all mayors are legally appointed by the central government?" Armin pointed out. "And there's no way… there's no way that they'd ever appoint a Vulpis to be mayor… not in such a prestigious area."

"Hah…" Jean averted his gaze, realising his ignorance. "Well, maybe not mayor then, but I'll still be living better than _you _three, Jeager, Arlert, Ackerman. You three can go back to your shitty agricultural district and pick weeds until your backs break. I'll be living a life of luxury compared to you."

Eren turned away again, not wanting to hear him talk in that infuriatingly smug voice of his with that annoyingly complacent expression. _Why is he so smug anyway? He has no reason to be so uptight. He's just like us._

"How can you be so sure?" Eren inquired rhetorically. "What if the interior isn't all it's cracked up to be? What if you find yourself living a life even _worse_ than the one you're living now? And… what if your only reason for living… was simply to be subordinate? To carry out orders for someone else, without getting any say in your own actions whatsoever? That would be no better than slavery."

Without waiting to hear his reply, Eren stormed off, practically sprinting, so his friends had to run to catch up to him. _Jean is just like the finishing touch to another shitty day, _he silently raged. _Dammit all! Why can't they see? They're all being lured into a trap, which they think they're going to benefit from… but really, it's all for the Canes!_

He furiously powerwalked onwards, ignorant to everything around him. All he saw was Jean's smug, mocking face, then the robotic expressions of his teachers… and then the disdainful gaze of that black-haired midget he met on the train. _"Get out of my sight, you disgusting Vulpis brat," _was what that gaze seemed to say. And that notion made Eren's inside's boil to an even more intense heat as fresh waves of rage and hatred emanated through him. _I wish I could just kill them all. Just like that…_

"Eren!"

Said Vulpis looked up to meet the silvery eyes of his adoptive sister. "Mikasa?" he mumbled detachedly, his rage quieting to a simmer, although it didn't dissipate entirely.

"You need to calm down, Eren." Mikasa spoke each word forcefully and clearly, as if she were a military general stating a brusque order to a bunch of trainee soldiers. "Whenever you're… like this, you get into trouble. You pick fights with others around you whenever you're agitated. You need to learn to control it sometimes. …Eren? Are you listening to me?"

"Yeah," Eren muttered. It was only a partial lie. "Just stop speaking to me like you're my mother, okay?" He turned his back on Mikasa dismissively, feeling the rage building up, racing to consume him once again.

"I'm like… like your mother?!" the noirette intoned, her voice laced with incredulity. "I'm only trying to protect you, Eren, okay? You don't have to-"

"But what if I don't need your protection?" Eren interrupted, his verdant orbs burning fiercely. "What if I don't need you constantly watching over me, dragging me out of every fight I happen to get into? What if I can resolve my own problems just as well without you?"

Mikasa's face remained impassive as always, though Eren thought he saw a glint of moisture in her eye catch the light of the setting sun. "I have a debt to repay you, Eren," she uttered simply. "I promised myself-"

"Well, consider it paid," he responded, a little more sharply and harshly than he intended.

"Er… Mikasa?" Amin intervened rather sheepishly. "Perhaps we should leave Eren alone for a little while… you know, just so he can cool off a little."

Mikasa still seemed reluctant to leave Eren's side, but she followed Armin, albeit not without several rapid glances back towards her brother. "Promise me you won't do anything stupid," she called.

"Eren, we'll be waiting at the train station for you!" chirped Armin's voice.

All too soon, the footsteps of his friends faded to silence as they moved off in the direction of the station. The young Vulpis glanced up, noticing for the first time where he was. He was at a crossroads junction – it wasn't much to look at really, with the dirty cobbles underfoot, the disintegrating wooden buildings arranged in a rough circle and a dried-up, misshapen fountain in the centre.

He knew where he was, roughly. There were two routes he could take to Trost Central Station, one of which Mikasa and Armin had already taken. He decided to take the alternate route back. Feeling a twinge of guilt at his outburst earlier whilst simultaneously remembering the incident that had brought them together, he felt too ashamed to catch up to his sister just yet. And so he walked straight onwards.

As he traversed the cobbled roads, avoiding clattering horse-drawn carriages (though Eren wasn't sure if they could really be called horses, as the best horses available to the Vulpes were not much larger than ponies), he never once felt his anger and frustration recede. In fact, it only intensified.

_Simply "cooling off" won't do any good. I need to… I need to _do_ something!_

_But what? _Now that was the question. What could he realistically do against the Canes, as one person, to show the bitterness and hatred he felt towards them? A few possibilities came into his mind, but he quickly dismissed them all. It was no use rallying other Vulpes against them. They would never agree to an uprising – they were all too craven to even think of such a thing. Nor did he have the means or the know-how to disrupt the Canes' lives from afar.

_What else is there…?_

Eren turned his gaze upwards from the cobbles to meet with the sight of an imposing iron fence, its bars painted a hue darker than an eclipsed star. Atop the fence, which stood over seven metres high, pinwheels of barbed wire and malicious spikes deterred even the most talented climber from scaling the barrier.

It was then that he realised just how far he had walked. He had been traveling for almost an entire mile from the crossroads to the boundary fence, completely enshrouded in his thoughts.

The young Vulpis's emerald gaze dropped until he stared right through the bars of the fence.

Beyond the silvery-sheened train tracks and discoloured, dirty gravel, a narrow sliver of scenery could be seen. Within, Eren thought he caught a glimpse of an extravagant, gilded fountain acting as the centrepiece for an opulent plaza. Flowerbeds were arranged among verdant greenery in an artistic fashion, with not a petal or leaf out of place. His acute sense of smell picked up the aroma of a nearby bakery – edible, fresh and unadulterated. His mouth subconsciously watered at the scent.

_The Canis side of town…_

Unbidden, a thought entered Eren's head. It was the sort of notion that most others would dismiss as ridiculous and reckless. But for Eren Jaeger, in his extremely frustrated and aggravated mood, the prospect seemed very inviting indeed.

So, without even taking a second to think twice about it, Eren willed his body to transform.

Within moments, a thick coat of umber fur began to sprout from every follicle on his body. His face completely morphed, his nose developing into a pointed snout, and his hands and feet contracted into paws. As he changed, Eren rapidly shed his clothes, tossing them aside uncaringly. He then dropped to all fours as his canines elongated, his skeletal structure readjusted and whiskers protruded from his cheeks.

His large, fluffy tail and pointed ears remained the same, but everything else had changed drastically. Now in his full "Vulpic" form, with a slender and rather streamlined physique, Eren felt ready for an invasion.

It didn't take him very long to find a chink in the fence's armour. The ground under the fence was soft and uneven, so Eren found the soil gave way easily under his claws. His highly-attuned Vulpic senses meant that the smell of the bakery now all but filled his nose. Focusing on his rage, hatred and desire to inflict suffering upon the Canes, the Vulpis then transformed those emotions into the energy he used to keep digging. In less than two minutes, he had excavated a wide tunnel that emerged clean on the other side of the fence. Leaping across the train tracks on nimble Vulpis legs that contracted and expanded like elastic, Eren dashed on, unperturbed, as the ground rattled beneath him; in this form, it was a merely a small feat to outrun a passing train.

Said train thundered past as Eren ground to a halt on the other side of the tracks. But he was oblivious to the chugging vehicle; his eyes and mind were fixated completely on the sights and smells of the world just beyond the fence, now that it was barely a metre away. The rich scent of the bakery was now so powerful that Eren salivated almost uncontrollably. His Vulpic eyes took in the fine architecture, the blooming flowerbeds, the neatly-pruned trees and the marble paving stones that seemed to glimmer golden in the evening light.

_Those bastards…_

_Why should they get to live like this…_

_…__when so many of us are on the brink of starvation and sleeping in our own filth?_

Eren had seen enough. He wanted to tear this entire district down – bulldoze it and then smother it, and then do the same to all the Canes within it.

He dug his claws into the ground.

The plaza was full of Canes dashing to and fro from Trost Central Station – some dressed in tail-coated business suits or uniforms, others in extravagant, silken gowns – but not one of them noticed Eren as he scrambled in the dirt, frantically digging as though his life depended on it.

And then, an umber blur shot through the crowd, so quickly that many of the spectating Canes dismissed it immediately as their imagination. But they revoked that notion as a shrill scream pierced the air.

The scream was a mixture of terror, shock, and pain; all emanating from the glossy, rouged lips of a female Canis in an intricately-decorated gown finished with jewels and finery. A young child, presumably her daughter, clung to her side, looking up with wide eyes at the dark chocolate-brown Vulpis who had attached himself to the mother's forearm by his jaws.

Eren applied more pressure to his victim's arm, shuddering as he heard the satisfying crunch of fracturing ligaments, followed up by an intense howl of pain.

Many of the surrounding Canes backed away in disconcertion and confusion, but several others leaped to their fellow Canis's aid. One of them grasped Eren by the back legs and tried desperately to pull him off, but the stubborn Vulpis clung on, digging his canines into Canis flesh. Another approached with a carved wooden cane and a forbidding expression on his face. As he brought back his arm to deliver a blow to Eren's skull, the Vulpis finally released his grip.

Landing deftly on all fours, he didn't waste a single second as he slashed at the legs of nearby Canes, splitting fabric and spilling blood, before dodging out of his assailants' range. As they chased him, shouting obscenities, Eren dashed across the flowerbed, uprooting plants with a flick of his paw.

In every direction, chaos reigned among the Canes as they tried to flee or desperately grabbed the nearest object that they could use as a weapon. They directed their yells and screams at each other, at Eren, and at no-one in particular; but the renegade Vulpis had no care for what they said. In fact, the only things he registered were the adrenalin coursing through his veins, and his hunger for Canis blood, which was still not yet sated.

_I want to kill them all… Every single fucking one of them. For what they did to me, to my family, to Mikasa, to everyone…_

A sharp crack echoed across the plaza. Barely a millisecond after Eren's attuned ears picked up the sound, pain exploded in his left shoulder, causing his left foreleg to give way underneath his body. He collapsed onto his side, the sudden, intense pain darkening his vision. However, he managed to stay conscious, just barely. He was about to attempt to stand, but a great weight above him managed to pin him down before he could do so.

Frantically twisting his body around, Eren emitted a sharp, guttural growl of agony as he met with the brownish-green eyes of a huge Canis. The large male was in his full Canic form, his teeth bared in a ferocious snarl. Brown fur a few shades darker than Eren's covered his entire body, particularly at his thick, muscular legs and short, upright tail.

"That's enough. Stand down, Bertolt. He's not going anywhere."

At the sound of the coldly emotionless, feminine voice, the Canis known as Bertolt rather reluctantly withdrew, sitting back on his haunches as if in anticipation of another order.

It was only then that the owner of the voice hovered into view; a uniform-clad Canis with neatly-kept pale blonde hair pinned in place behind her head. She stared down at Eren through icy blue eyes that held no emotion whatsoever. The rest of her pale face, however, exuded pure disgust and contempt for the Vulpis lying beneath her.

She was surprisingly short for a Canis, yet still imposing; particularly as she aimed the barrel of a still-smoking musket at Eren's head. Having been oddly reminded of the dark-haired imposter of his previous train journey, Eren returned the Canis girl a repulsed glance, trying his best to ignore the haze of pain descending upon his vision.

"Well. It's true I don't see many Vulpes around these parts," she stated, almost casually, as if she were simply making polite conversation; though her eyes and tone remained deadpan. "But I'll have to deal with you, nonetheless."

As the blonde Canis's finger slid over the trigger of her firearm, Eren's eyes suddenly registered the insignia upon her shoulder. It was difficult to make out initially through his blurred vision, but there was no mistaking it.

_A green unicorn._

Eren's mind computed what this meant just as the trigger was pulled: that this girl, and possibly her accomplice too, were members of the governmental, all-Canis organisation that kept law and order running throughout Dreimauer. The Military Police Brigade.

But before he had time to think of anything else, the bullet impacted on his body, and his world dissolved into pain.


	3. Chapter 3: Tenebrosity

**Well, I read all your reviews and noticed all the follows, so I decided to churn out an extra chapter earlier than intended! Anyway, thanks for all your support and I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the previous two! Sadly I can't guarantee an update for a while after this, but since you guys appear to be enjoying it I'll see if I can eventually get into a regular updating schedule for this story.~**

**Next chapter I'm considering telling from Levi's perspective. If you have any thoughts on that, feel free to leave a review!**

**And now, without further ado...**

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**Chapter Three: Tenebrosity**

Darkness. Darkness, and pain.

That was all Eren could see, and all he could physically feel.

He felt a stinging chill on his bare skin as the warmth of his body was leeched away by the frigid brick floor of the cell. However, this was nothing in comparison to the relentless throbbing of the myriad bruises that dotted his body, like egregious wax seals stamped forcefully onto his flesh.

The last prison guard that had entered Eren's cell had decided to attack him in Canic form; clearly he hadn't been impressed by the Vulpis's last belligerent storm of verbal abuse. Eren had numerous lacerations and bite marks running along his forearm to prove it, which had by now been reduced to large, fissured scabs of dried blood. Yet they still ached with every tiny movement that he made.

And of course, there were the two gunshot wounds that he had received earlier from that sociopathic blonde MP who had confronted him at the plaza. Barely any treatment had been given to the Vulpis for the injuries, though he had expected as much. The bullets were still firmly lodged within his shoulder and lower abdomen, and blood continued to seep through, staining the crudely wrapped bandages across his stomach and torso. The wounds themselves didn't hurt nearly as much as they did initially – the second bullet, which had been fired so that it missed his internal organs by a very narrow margin, had originally caused him so much agony that he had almost passed out right then and there. The pain was now significantly dulled, but Eren didn't dare move an inch for fear that he might accidentally drive the bullets even further in and add an agonising crescendo to the steady, throbbing beat of his pain.

Another basic need his captors had denied him was clothing – he lay completely naked on the stained ceramic, his bushy tail wrapped around himself in order to provide at least some protection against the chill of the cell. Eren clung tightly to the soft umber fur – his only comfort in the dark, soundless bubble his entire world had been reduced to. The only light he could see was streaming through edges of the door in front of him – a single millimetre of illumination outlining the iron behemoth that barricaded him from the outside world.

_This darkness… This must be one of those solitary confinement cells…_

At that notion, he let out a small, bitter chuckle. _They're treating me like a real criminal now._

Though that didn't really seem to amount to much under the custody of the Canes. They could do whatever they wanted to him without fear of ever facing any consequences for it, because after all, who in Dreimauer would listen to a dangerous, conniving Vulpis teenager over a perfectly respectable member of the Military Police Brigade?

But the longer Eren eyes traced that outline – the only thing he could still see of the world outside - the more he began wishing that another prison guard would come along to swing that iron door open on its oiled hinges. He did not care for what reason; whether it was to deliver food, or water, or to pass on information, it no longer mattered. Inevitably, he would be beaten to a pulp once again if he so much as spoke a syllable that could be taken as derogatory by the Canes. But at least something would come out of it. At least he'd get to vent some of his pent-up fear and frustration. At this point, he hardly cared what price he'd have to pay.

But Eren soon realised that wasn't the only reason why he wanted someone – anyone – to enter his field of vision at that moment. The full effects of Eren's isolation were beginning to settle in – and it was nothing less than torture. The Vulpis could deal with pain. He could deal with crude remarks. He could deal with mockery; with guards picking up his limp body by the tail, shaking it violently and laughing, only to toss him back onto the floor like a piece of discarded waste. But he knew he couldn't stand _this _for much longer. He didn't care how; he just wanted to be acknowledged. He felt as though the entire world had forgotten the fact that he existed.

For all he knew, perhaps it had.

Time was fluid behind that iron door. Eren had no idea just how long he had spent lying there in his sorry state. Had it been days? Weeks? Months, even? He had no way of knowing. Guards regularly brought him plates of gruel, but he couldn't tell whether the food was brought daily…. or twice daily… or once every two days… In any case, the food was barely edible. _I should've stolen something from that bakery while I still had the chance, _he thought regretfully.

_I can't have been here too long, though, _Eren reasoned. _It must be less than a week. I haven't drifted off to sleep since I came here, so it couldn't have been too long. _

He soon found himself questioning that very thought. What if he simply couldn't _remember _ever sleeping? His perception was blurred, and his memories were all mashed up and mixed around in an incoherent stew of neural jumble; so that he could hardly differentiate between what really happened and what might've only ever existed as a dream or nightmare…

It only got worse for Eren as he continued to think about it. He tried to distance his mind from the topic, to think about something else, but what else was there, really, to think about? There was nothing in his cell. Nothing beyond the relentless darkness, the door, and the uncomfortable brick flooring beneath his body. The only stimulation could be found inside his mind, but that hardly helped matters…

Every time Eren attempted to drift off to sleep, his mind conjured up images that seemed to project over his closed eyelids, like a reel of photographs; the blonde Canis aiming the barrel of her musket into his face; the expression Mikasa's face held as she bid him farewell. The words that she last spoke played on an infinite loop: _"Promise me you won't do anything stupid."_

Well, he'd done an amazing job at keeping to that, hadn't he?

What were his friends even doing right now? Were they still waiting for him patiently at the train station, as Armin had said? Would they be worried? Most likely. Eren could picture Armin's stricken face even now. He'd probably blame himself for the whole scenario. The little blond bookworm always did.

Gritting his teeth, Eren clamped his eyes shut as a solitary tear ran down his left cheek, seeping into a small cut on his chin and causing it to sting. _I… I just wish those two were here now… so I could tell them… so I could apologise…_

His fingers dug into the fur of his tail, pulling at the thick fibres. _But… _he thought desperately, _they have to let me out of here at some point, right? There will be a trial, won't there?_

By the law of Dreimauer, it was a requirement for any citizen accused of any crime, be they a Vulpis or a Canis, to stand trial at one of the courts of the Military Police Brigade. Of course, Eren would be found guilty and would most likely be sentenced to the gallows. Breaking the civil code of conduct by entering a strictly Vulpis-prohibited territory was not typically punishable by death, but Eren knew that they would probably want to hang him after attacking the citizens of Canis Trost in cold blood. But at least he'd be out of this godforsaken cell. And maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to pass on a message to his best friend and foster sister before he died…

_But what if… what if they just decide to let me starve and rot here? Is that how it's gonna end? Am I going to die in this very cell, right here, in this exact position?_

As that thought sunk in, Eren began to internally panic. _I need to get out of here! I need to… I need to…!_

Eren's body then jolted as if electrified. A sudden _clunk _echoed through the corridor, louder than he could have ever thought physically possible. The noise was followed by the unmistakeable sound of the iron lock mechanism in the door giving way to a key. The hinges swung outward silently, as they had done seemingly innumerable times before. As they did so, the blaze of the paraffin lamps in the corridor outside rushed in, causing Eren to squint as his pupils rapidly contracted against the intensifying rays.

The guard entered the room just as soundlessly. The Vulpis glanced upwards apprehensively, momentarily wondering just how the guard had managed to move so quietly down the corridor without alerting Eren to his presence. It was almost as if he had materialised like an apparition outside the door.

_Like Death himself… Has he come to take me to the gallows…?_

But, quite unlike how he had initially suspected, this notion did not make Eren feel relieved that he might be finally leaving his cage.

He could barely make out the guard's face – a hat emblazoned with the Military Police insignia was pulled down low over his eyes. The man was short in stature, but his outline was lean and somehow vaguely familiar. The Vulpis felt rather than saw the Canis's gaze on him – an intense stare that left him feeling rather self-conscious due to his lack of clothing. He innately drew his tail even tighter around himself in a pitiful attempt to appear modest.

"Pathetic," the guard spat. His tone was muffled beneath his head garment, but those three syllables were spoken with such brusque sharpness that Eren nearly flinched.

But before the Vulpis had a chance to retaliate, the guard withdrew a roll of paper from the inside of his jacket and opened it flat to reveal a hand-written document. "So, you're Eren Jaeger, correct? …'Jaeger'… not a very apt surname for someone so wretched," he commented derisively.

_Wretched…?! _Eren was a split-second short of leaping up and throttling the Canis in front of him, but said Canis moved far too quickly for him to even comprehend. The guard pressed his weight onto the centre of Eren's back through the sole of his boot, pinning the young Vulpis down with such force that he gasped. "Y-You…" he grunted.

"I can only wonder what your parents are like if you are this disrespectful," he murmured.

"How… can I respect someone… who doesn't even treat me like a… like an actual person…?" Eren got out between ragged breaths.

To his surprise, the guard did not retort as he had expected him to. Instead, the Canis made a vaguely amused humming sound. "You make a fair point, Jaeger," he replied as he relieved Eren from the pressure of his foot on his spine.

Before the Vulpis could properly comprehend that remark, he felt himself being roughly grabbed by his forearm and hauled to his feet. His muscles screamed in agony at the sudden movement, and his larynx did likewise.

"Keep quiet, brat," the guard ordered.

Eren blinked, and in that instant he met the guard's gaze. Intense, steel-grey eyes peered out from under a cropped fringe of glossy black hair. It did not take long for recognition to settle in.

"Wait a second… you're…"

"What did I tell you about keeping quiet?" the Canis guard cut in, viciously but not at all loudly. "If you've got a single cell of intelligence in that pathetic brain of yours, you'll listen to me."

For a moment Eren was totally speechless. There were too many questions spiralling in his mind to properly process any other thought. _Who is this guy? What does he want with me? Why was he on a Vulpis train… heading to Vulpis Trost… if he's a Canis? Even worse, he's a member of the Military Police. …He must be a spy. There's no other explanation for it. It's like Armin said…_

"Listen… to you?" Eren repeated slowly as he wrenched his arm out of the imposter's grip. "There's no way… Somebody like that… you're lower even than most Canes…! You're… you're…"

He was silenced with yet another slap. This time, as he was caught in mid-speech, he ended up biting his tongue. "Ah…" he garbled, spitting out a blob of blood and saliva.

The Canis appeared to instinctively back away from the crimson fluid that now stained the floor. "I couldn't care less what you think of me, so long as you keep your mouth shut. I have my reasons for doing what I do, and I don't expect you to understand them. I get that a lot, anyway. From Canes as well as Vulpes, if it pleases you to know."

"What…?" Eren muttered in confusion as he wiped a droplet of blood from the corner of his mouth.

"You really are an ignorant brat," the Canis snorted. "Don't you understand? I'm _trying_ to get you out of here."

"…Why?" Eren was incredulous.

"Like I said, I have my reasons and you don't have to know them. But you have a reason, too. You've got nothing to lose. Corporal Leonhardt has already put in her case and organised everything necessary for your trial, at which you will be convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. If you're at all aware of how this fucked-up system works, this will not come as news to you." He stared at Eren, his gaze never once breaking contact with Eren's jade irises. "The question is not whether you're willing to trust me. It's whether you're willing to get out of this place alive so you can see your bratty friends again. I won't say it twice."

For a moment, Eren was completely nonplussed.

"Okay…" he then muttered with uncertainty.

"Good. I'll get you something to wear first, because, quite honestly, just seeing you in that pathetic state sickens me."

Flustered, Eren rapidly tried to cover his groin with his tail. "D-don't look at me!"

"Alright. It isn't as if you're much to look at."

"Hey!" Eren fumed in indignation, but the Canis simply ignored him.

He cautiously followed the Canis out of the cell, still not wholly certain of this particular course of action. _Still, it isn't as if I've got anything to lose…_

As he stared at the back of the man in front of him, a sudden thought occurred to him. "Uh… By the way… what's your name?"

The black-haired Canis turned back towards him. "Why do you want to know?" he demanded.

Eren's face creased in irritation. "Well, you know mine, so it's only fair," he pointed out.

"Hmph. I don't see why you should refer to me as anything. You're not any sort of ally or accomplice of mine, after all." He paused for a moment, coolly regarding the Vulpis before him. "But if you must, my name is Levi."

"Levi…" Eren repeated, as if it were a pneumonic or poem that he intended to never forget.

"Now's not the time to become all gooey-eyed, brat." Eren looked over to see that Levi was shrugging out of his jacket.

"What… what are you doing?"

"Put this uniform on, keep your gaze down and follow my lead," Levi instructed as he tossed his hat onto the floor, revealing pointed, triangular Canis ears almost as glossy as the hair on his head. "There's always the chance of alarm triggers."

Levi transformed so rapidly that Eren barely noticed the change. Before him stood a small yet powerful-looking dog with that same smooth, lustrous black fur and those metallic, aloof grey eyes that bored into Eren's own.

For the first time in perhaps his entire life, Eren did as he was told.


	4. Chapter 4: Incandescence

**Yes, I am aware that this is hellishly overdue. I blame sixth form college. And the fact that I'm just inherently crap at updating.**

**Still, I hope you find it worth the wait. Though it's probably more likely that you completely forgot about it due to the massive gap in updating. If that's true, then I don't blame you. In fact, I practically forgot about this story's existence momentarily over the summer as well.**

**But I'll try to update more regularly from now on, especially as the chapters are set to get even more exciting from here on out! Well, I hope so, anyway. I've got plans for all sorts of horrible things to happen. And not to mention other character appearances. But anyway, you're not here to listen to me ramble on.**

**Enjoy the chapter!~**

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**Chapter Four: Incandescence**

Although it should perhaps go without saying, the semi-subterranean stations of the Military Police Brigade were designed, right down to the most miniscule of details, to prevent any particularly resourceful inmates from escaping. The network of corridors was more accurately described as a labyrinth. The security code, encrypted into every brick of the building, fussed excessively over regulations and standard procedures. It was paranoia on a Planck scale.

Albeit necessary paranoia. Or at least, that was what the heads of the organisation were keen to point out – especially as they were, apparently, the only reason why the city of Dreimauer was not swarming with criminals, violent Vulpis dissidents, defectors, non-conformists and corrupt officials. Yet it was well-known amongst the Vulpes that the majority of the city's corrupt officials were within the Military Police Brigade itself.

Yet this sort of paranoia inevitably missed out one or two crucial points. Time spent fretting over the stability of a particular padlock would then lead the same officer to inadvertently ignore the rusty and brittle condition of the cell's ancient bars. And that was the chink in the MPs' armour. If one was intelligent enough and experienced enough, it was outrageously easy to organise a break-out. One simply had to choose the correct time.

It appeared Levi had done so. The corridors were nearly devoid of officers, as at that point the stark majority of the force's members were outside, being run through a near-relentless series of drills. That was according to Levi, however; the enigmatic Canis whom Eren had only put his trust in because he had no other choice. So the young Vulpis folded his ears tightly beneath his hat, pulled the visor down over his distinctive viridescent irises and walked with as much purpose and confidence as he could muster in his injured state. It was a rather forced attempt to imitate the disciplined, calculated march of the few uniformed MPs he passed by. Yet, thankfully, none of them took much heed.

He hated the uniform; not just because it was a symbol of the oppressive system which he loathed, but also because it was hellishly uncomfortable. The tight-fitting white trousers were far too small for him, a matter only made worse by the fact that a large bushy Vulpis tail was stuffed down one of the legs. Eren could barely believe that it wasn't visible. His toes squealed as though subject to torture within his boots. The tightness only served to exacerbate his internal wounds, which still pained him with every movement. Breathing was labour.

_Damn that fucking midget. _His mouth tightened in a thin, taut grimace, though he said nothing.

He did nothing but follow Levi, who briskly trotted in his quadruped form just ahead of the umber-haired teenager, waiting soundlessly for the injured Vulpis to catch up when he lagged behind and subtly nudging his leg to indicate a turning point. Eren felt the revulsion rise in his throat whenever he obeyed this wordless command. But he managed to convince himself that his dignity was a small price to pay for his freedom.

Levi, meanwhile, moved with an almost ostentatiously casual confidence. His steps were elegant, well-controlled, precise, readily poised to break into a run or leap at the slightest indication of danger. He acted as though he knew the place inside out (though, considering he was an undercover agent of some sort, that notion was entirely plausible). Levi's behaviour both simultaneously irritated and impressed Eren. The Vulpis found it difficult to form a concrete opinion of the furtive Canis, so he tried his best not to think too much about it.

_But why? _The question came up again and again. _What is his aim? What is he possibly hoping to get out of this situation?_

Although Eren knew it was pointless to ask, he desperately wanted to know.

The air became warmer and crisper as the two of them neared the surface. The corridors changed drastically. Where previously there were dark, dank tunnels lined with exposed brick and the occasional splashes of light from paraffin lamps, there was now an elegant mahogany décor, a ubiquitous fleur-de-lis pattern on the walls and glimmering bronze furnishings. The floors, once stony cold, were now pearlescently tiled.

Eren's nose picked up the scent of freedom. The unmistakeable smell of the outside world; an atmospheric plethora of different odours, layered on top of each other; the good, the bad, the neutral. But in that moment, for Eren, his only perception of it was as a mouth-watering sweetness, a scent so beckoning he could only sprint towards it.

But he didn't, for two reasons. His nose alerted him to the musky, pervasive whiff of a Canis other than Levi, who rapidly approached. He detected olfactory emotions and traits. Purposefulness, deadliness; a fearsome personality evident through scent. The familiarity was barely there, dancing along the fringes of Eren's mind.

The second reason was due to Levi's reaction. The sable Canis grabbed at his ankles, herding him with unnatural strength into the nearest adjacent corridor and shoving him roughly into a shadowed alcove. Eren narrowly resisted the urge to holler profanity at his rescuer.

Once in the alcove, the Vulpis barely had time to right himself before Levi reconfigured into his bipedal form. "We're swapping, brat," he stated urgently. "I don't want to do this but we don't have too many options. Give that uniform over."

"Why?"

"Don't question me, brat. Just do it."

Levi's voice was of barely suppressed desperation, and Eren himself couldn't exactly say that he wasn't disconcerted by the scent of the approaching Canis either. So he rapidly pulled off the painfully tight uniform, averting his eyes as he did so, trying to ignore the fact that Levi was standing over him, completely nude. He was partially glad of the switchover, having liberated his limbs from the constraining grip of that horrible uniform, but it left him once again feeling open and vulnerable.

"Okay, now, _listen,_" Levi spoke as he whipped the uniform back on in a controlled tornado of fabric and leather. Eren could hear footsteps, distant but becoming aggressively louder. "We don't have much time. So I don't what to hear any 'buts', any 'whys', anything. And I don't want to hear any complaints afterward, either. This is going to hurt. Okay?"

Before Eren could properly comprehend that sentence, much less before he could give his consent, Levi slammed a tight fist into the Vulpis's abdomen, impacting him like a bullet. Eren was hurled against the opposite wall from the force of the punch, and hung as though suspended there, paralysed by pain and confusion. Levi, however, was relentless. A roundhouse kick slugged Eren in the side, causing the latter to crumple haphazardly to the ground. Levi slashed at him again and again with his booted feet, colliding against his face, torso, stomach. Eren had no time to protect himself from the blows, much less retaliate. When a final, crescenduous kick impacted the Vulpis's bruised, bloodied and bullet-riddled body, he innately transformed in a final feeble attempt to protect himself. Every cell in his body was screaming.

He heard footsteps from some other world turn the corner. He was hoisted upwards, and through pain-smudged vision noticed the face of the previous scents and footsteps reveal itself, or rather, themselves. It was not just one Canis, in turned out, but three _Canes._

All in humanoid form, two blond, one brown; two tall, one short. As their features shifted into clarity, Eren registered familiarity.

The centre Canis's cold, discompassionate expression and pinioned blonde hair was unmistakeable as the face of the musket-wielding MP who had originally brought Eren into custody. On her left-hand-side was an immensely taller man, sporting hair of a slightly darker umber to Eren's and a rigidly serious, albeit rather bashful, expression. Olfactory insight immediately identified him as the Canic-formed Canis who had accompanied the blonde to the plaza where Eren had ran riot. But the right-hand Canis, a tall burly blond perhaps only three inches shorter than his brunette companion, was completely unfamiliar. It was he who spoke.

"What in the name of the Walls happened here?" he demanded.

"No need to be alarmed, Corporal Braun," a carefully deadpan voice above Eren sounded. Levi. The man who had lured him into trust with a promise of escape before shitting completely on that notion was now cradling Eren's battered Vulpic body in his arms. Dazed and winded, with pain reigniting all over his body, the Vulpis was helpless to do anything but allow the raging river of seething anger and betrayal to flow through him. What the fuck was it that had possessed him to trust a Canis in the first place anyway?

"A minor skirmish. One of the prisoners attempted to escape."

"Just one?" Braun questioned. At Levi's nod, he audibly sighed. "Well, what happened? I'm not sure if I know you. Don't think I've had the pleasure."

"Private Falkenrath," Levi answered briskly. "I was simply patrolling the basement corridors when I noticed that this Vulpis had escaped from his cell. I chased him up here but just managed to catch him before he reached the entrance."

_Falkenrath? _Eren's addled mind struggled to contemplate. _What, so that's who he is? He was pretending to help me all along? But… why?_

"Private, huh? You must be a new recruit." Braun nodded, impressed. "It's not every day you see a rookie catch an escaping criminal. Who knows? You might be up for promotion very soon." He winked as though sharing a joke.

_Oh, right. _That's _why. I should've guessed. Bastard._

The short female Canis chose that moment to intercept the conversation. She stepped forward, leaning in, regarding Eren coolly. When she spoke, her voice was honed in its sharpness. "This Vulpis… He's the very same one Bertholt and I arrested in the plaza yesterday. He's got a whole heap of charges on his head, including trespassing and assault." Her mouth warped into a smirk that did not travel beyond her lips. "This is quite convenient, actually. His trial's scheduled to begin in just a few hours' time."

Braun chuckled. "That's our Annie Leonhardt for you. Efficient. She gets things done around here. You've heard of Corporal Leonhardt before, haven't you, Private?"

"Yes." Levi's metallic gaze did not waver from Annie's pale azure irises.

The burly Canis shrugged. "Well, Bertie?" he addressed to his silent, brown-haired companion. "Guess we'd better check the cells, see if they're as secure as they should be. Protocols and all that shit." The footsteps of the two Canes soon receded, reverberating with the same casual indifference upheld by the more senior members of the Military Police Brigade.

"Falkenrath," Corporal Leonhardt muttered brusquely. "Walk with me."

Levi obliged, carefully cradling the internally fuming Vulpis. He fell into step two paces behind Annie.

"Considering you have seen what you have seen, you might be asked to give evidence in court later today. The fact that he managed to get this far is yet more proof of his profile as a threat to the citizens of Dreimauer. However…" The corporal let the ellipsis perpetuate, filling the void between her words with the silence of speculation. "Given that he _seemed_ to have no previous experience as an escape artist, I wouldn't discount the possibility of there being an accomplice."

"I agree," Levi answered, the tension and subtle irony of his tone camouflaged within his otherwise expressionless demeanour. "Corporal, if I may ask, would it not be better to postpone the trail until we can gather more evidence? Until we can prove whether he did indeed have an accomplice? For all we know, this person may be some sort of missing link in this case. They may have even been working behind the scenes during the assault on Trost Central Plaza."

Annie stopped still. She didn't exactly turn around to face him, but she managed to lock eyes with him nonetheless, gazing over her shoulder at a distorted angle. "I take it you're one of those ballsy types who aren't afraid to question their superiors, Private Falkenrath." There was a tinge of threatening anger to her voice, but just beneath that, something that sounded vaguely like amusement. "I wonder, was that part of the behavioural code at your last workplace? But, that aside, the citizens of Dreimauer cannot be delayed justice. We must deal with this incident as quickly as possible. You're new, Falkenrath, so I won't rap you for that. But you'll soon learn that such cases as these must be treated as isolated, even if in actuality they aren't. The public must remain ignorant, always under their illusion of safety. Do you understand?"

Eren could only flop pathetically in Levi's arms as he listened to this, this acidic fountain of Military Police bullshit being spewed forth. All of it was repulsive, but it was the MP's pronunciation of the word "justice" that truly stung in his ears.

_These people don't even know the meaning of that word._

A sudden undulating incline. As Levi followed Annie up a set of lavishly furnished spiralling stairs, the kitsch floral carpet and carved mahogany gleamed in burnished splendour in a pool of illumination streaming down from a painted skylight above. Eren's eyes snapped upward to the source of the light, the _natural _light, that great indicator of the outdoors, and thus of freedom. Eren could smell it, feel it. But he was nowhere near it. He may as well have been miles underground.

"Corporal, where are we headed, exactly?" Levi questioned as they ascended.

"There's a small infirmary on the top floor," Annie answered without looking back. "Obviously, when he's in the docks, he's going to have to look at least slightly respectable. And he's going to need his basic functions. So we'd better patch him up a bit."

When Levi didn't answer, the corporal continued: "It's rather amazing, actually. Two bullets in his body and he can still stand, walk, run, attempt escape. But that's Vulpes for you. They're tough creatures. Survivalist vermin." The last two words were spoken with slight fervour, emphasised by the most subtle of hatreds.

Heavy oaken doors loomed before them. Annie pushed the double portals open with only an exiguous edge of drama. Inside, four brass-framed beds were arranged alongside each wall, the shelves in the alcoves between them crammed with mildly fluorescent vials of rather dubious-looking concoctions and yellowing medical textbooks.

_What kind of infirmary is this? Even my dad's medical books are more up to date than those… _His thoughts ebbed into a maelstrom of burgeoning fear. They were going to _cut him open. _Most probably. Would he even live to see his trial? _I'm going to die anyway_, he reasoned, but the anticipation would not recede.

Levi unceremoniously dumped Eren's limp body on the nearest bed. "We'll need him in human form," Annie informed. "He'll be easier to operate on when the time comes."

The steel-eyed Canis promptly jabbed a finger into Eren's solar plexus. The Vulpis's body convulsed before unravelling into humanoid form in an explosion of pain. He was left gasping and wheezing pitifully.

"Right." Annie locked eyes with Levi. "I'm going to get the surgeon. In the meantime, make sure you shackle him to the bed. He's weak, but you can never be too careful." She left briskly, her scent rapidly dissipating; the one indicator of her presence vanishing without a trace.

Silence filled in the gaps left by Annie's receding footsteps. For an indeterminate length of time, the remaining pair simply locked eyes with one another. Vulpis and Canis. The renegade and the enforcer.

Eren's mouth twisted with ire. "I should've fucking known," he muttered. His voice was a decrepit rasp, but his tone was as bitter as apothecary medicine. "Born a Canis, always a Canis. You people don't change."

Levi did not reply; he merely continued to stare at him. The grey-eyed Canis made no movement whatsoever. Eren, unnerved, realised that he was still nude and rapidly drew his tail about himself. Levi's irises did not flicker or even blink.

"W-why aren't you cuffing me to the bed, like she said?" the Vulpis demanded.

Levi's gaze still did not falter, but his mouth curled in a grimace. "Seriously, brat? I know you aren't necessarily the brightest cog in the engine but I had no idea you were _this_ stupid. I _was _waiting for you to put two and two together but I think we both know that we haven't got all day."

Eren frowned, confusion conquering his wrath. "What… what do you mean?"

"Think about it, brat. I never lied to you. When did I promise that you weren't going to get hurt? All I said was that I'd help you get out." Levi paused, his eyes still locked onto Eren's. "Surely you know by now. I wasn't doing that just to make myself look good around the fucking Military Police. I did it to _help _you."

"Help…?" The pieces slotted together in Eren's mind, alright, but it didn't exactly help him accept the situation. Even if Levi assaulted him for the sole reason of maintaining a convincing cover and preventing them from being caught, it didn't change the fact that Eren _ached _from head to toe. He tried desperately not to let his agony and exhaustion show, but in reality he felt as though neural volcanoes were erupting on every square centimetre of his body. "You… you were enjoying it, though… weren't you?" he seethed.

Levi shrugged. "I won't deny that possibility. Perhaps I did, just a little. You _are _an obnoxious brat, though. Part of me feels as though you deserved what came."

_"__This?"_ It took almost all of Eren's energy to emphasise on one word. "You're saying _I'm_ the only reason why I have to be treated this way?! I knew it! You _are _just like all the other Canes!" He was reduced to wheezing afterward, such was the vehemence of his speech.

"Shut up!" Levi ordered, his eyebrows rising and jaw clenching with an anger that Eren had not seen before. "Keep it down! I didn't say that. What I _did _say was a tad impulsive, and for that, I apologise." His voice took on a sincere tone. It couldn't exactly be described as compassionate, but perhaps, just maybe, it skirted along the border. "The truth is you're not bad, kid. It's the world we live in, the way that my…" He paused, vaguely searching for an appropriate term. "…species has designed it. That's our _real _enemy. That's why I don't want to fight you. But you _are _going to have to show me some respect soon, Jaeger. You're going to have to trust me, without a doubt."

"…I can barely move now… because of you." Eren's rasp, however, was significantly more sedate than previously.

"Yeah? Well. It's like Leonhardt said. Vulpes are survivalist vermin. It's only going to get tougher from here on, kid. You're going to need to get used to this type of thing." A small smile touched the Canis's lips. "Truth be told, I admire your kind for some of the same reasons that Leonhardt detests them for. You've got that survivalist courage in you, kid. It's… formidable, truth be told."

Eren blinked. _Was that supposed to be a compliment? _He watched Levi's back wonderingly. There was so much he didn't understand about this man, so much he wanted to know… He figured that it would be worth tagging along with him regardless of whether he trusted him or not, if only to figure out what he was all about.

The Canis hastily tore through the room, throwing open drawers and flinging books off shelves in blithe hypocrisy, disregarding his earlier warning to Eren to keep quiet. Eventually he simply tore down one of the curtains, the vibrantly dyed folds giving way under Levi's brute Canis strength. The severed head of the Military Police Brigade's emblematic green unicorn flapped as Levi rushed the curtain over.

"I know that you're in no position to walk right now," he muttered as he began to drape Eren in the fabric as a rudimentary attempt at clothing him. "And you've still got two bullets embedded in your body. I've been told that Leonhardt deliberately missed your vitals, but you're still going to need fixing up ASAP. Fortunately I know someone just beyond Wall Rose who'd be more than happy to help." As Levi pronounced the word "happy", his mouth formed a grimace, as though the term implied the opposite of what it meant.

He scuttled off once again, this time finding what he sought without as much crashing and bashing. He returned, his arms laden with an assortment of leather straps. A curious device was now strapped around his waist, attached to a body harness of yet more leather straps. The mechanism was far too complex to comprehend simply by observing the exterior. Helical wires converged on a box of burnished bronze gears fastened to Levi's back, and could be traced back to the hilts of a pair of blades, each contained within an elaborate holster strapped to each thigh.

"What the fuck is that?" Eren asked as Levi dropped the free leather straps onto the Vulpis's bed.

"3D Manoeuvre Gear. Strictly Military Police Brigade technology. Guess I was lucky to find an older model lounging around in one of those cupboards. It's a bit out of date, but I'm sure it works fine."

"What is it?" Eren asked again.

"Fine, brat. If you really want to know, it was invented to aid policemen in their crime-solving exploits by allowing them greater access to higher places. Comes in handy more often than you'd think. But today, we'll be using it to escape _from_ the police."

Levi rapidly threaded the straps around Eren's curtained body before buckling them into his harness, allowing him to effectively carry the brunette Vulpis as one would a backpack. Said Vulpis squirmed under the belts that constrained him. "Do I have to be carried around by you like a fucking two-year-old?"

"For the time being: yes. So suck it up, Jaeger, and spare a thought for the guy who's going to have to carry you." He made a fair point; Eren was several inches taller than Levi and, most likely, a few kilograms heavier. If not for Levi's enhanced strength, he would most likely collapse under Eren's weight.

The steel-eyed Canis strode to the window, making rapid readjustments to his belt straps as he did so. He gripped the base of the intricate window frame and thrust it upward with such force, the crystalline glass cracked. "Oops," Levi muttered sarcastically.

The defector Canis stepped, perfectly poised, onto the windowsill. Eren could peer over his shoulder into the panorama that spread out before them; roofs tiled in every colour possible amongst a ceramic forest of chimneys; all painted with golden highlights by the rich, warm illumination of the afternoon sun. Elaborate spires of marble and onyx, cobbled lanes, trees shedding autumnal glory. The same incandescence bathed the area beyond the railway, the comparatively battered and dilapidated Vulpis side of Trost. Beyond even that, a smudgy barge trailed along a bar of glittering sapphire, the canal nearly obscured by the hunched, meadow-green willows that surrounded its length. Indigo-creviced mountains and the shimmering fumes of nearby cities sat close to the horizon, where Wall Maria was just visible as a distant grey haze.

Eren felt wisps of sun-warmed wind brush past his ears, carrying with them the intense, wonderful perfume of freedom, nature, the world, everything.

It was the most beautiful sensation Eren could ever remember experiencing.

"Here we go." Eren's euphoria was abruptly punctuated by Levi's three words. He spoke them without the slightest hint of fear or apprehension; only confidence, and perhaps a slight edge of perferdity, was audible.

The Canis unsheathed both blades with a flourish. Around a foot of honed steel in each hand, specked with only the tiniest proportions of rust, glinted in the sunlight. "Tch. Not as flexible as the type I'm used to, but they'll do."

With that thought, Levi's thumb flicked a small trigger on the hilt of his right blade. Eren almost flinched as a sudden hook-tipped cable shot from the right side of Levi's hip, embedding itself into the brickwork of the nearest building. The abrupt _crack _of the cable launching was interspersed with the pneumatic hiss of gas pressure being released.

Nothing prepared Eren for the moment Levi jumped.


	5. Chapter 5: Abstraction

**Well, I think I suceeded somewhat in getting this chapter out a little earlier. The fact that The Last Pokeshifter is now on hiatus probably helped with that, if I'm honest.**

**But anyway, this is the chapter where things start to come together! Or at least, that was the idea. As always, I'd love to hear your opinion on the matter, so just drop a review to tell me what was good and what needs fixing.**

**There's not much else really left to say. You can expect the next chapter around mid-December, or if not, later... I do have upcoming mock exams, so I'm not going to make any promises as of yet. But Chapter Six will come. Eventually.**

**With that being said, enjoy the chapter.~**

* * *

**Chapter Five: Abstraction**

Eren saw a sky of speckled white. Intermittent blotches of dynamic colour were fleetingly visible through the crudely and hurriedly pierced ventilation holes in the fabric above him. He occasionally glanced coherent objects; a tree; a roof; a cloud, rose-painted in the sunset. But most of it was just a generic blur.

Beneath the tarpaulin, the only objects of interest were the apples. They were mottled with bruises and in some cases obscenely overripe, but the ravenous Vulpis did not care at this point. His last meal had been the trademark lunch of his school: an insipid bowl of soupy grey wheat. And that had been more than twenty-four hours ago. So the sickly sweetness of the apples actually made for a rather welcome change. Even the maggots that he had found squirming through the core of one of the fruits had not tasted nearly as bad as he had previously imagined.

There were only two apples left, and they had rolled irritatingly out of his reach. Levi had strapped him so tightly to the cart that he could barely raise his upper body further than his midriff. He scowled and collapsed back onto the splintered oak beneath him. "Bastard," he muttered, wincing as his injuries spasmed from steady throb to harsh sting.

Despite the aches that had colonised his body, Eren still wanted nothing more than to blitz through the streets outside, causing havoc where possible. He wanted to see the beyond of Wall Rose with his own eyes. He had never done so before.

In fact, it was notoriously difficult for a Vulpis to enter further into the city beyond Trost. All manner of unobtainable documents, qualifications and authorisations were needed, and only perhaps the most elevated Vulpis secretaries and personal assistants had access to such things.

Levi, as a Canis, knew a few loopholes. They had passed under Wall Rose on the Canis side of Trost, so Levi's upright, obsidian-black ears were all the proof of identity he needed. Add to that and the fact that he was wearing a ticket to the city.

A Military Police Brigade uniform, he had previously told Eren, could be used as a key to some of the most prestigious places in Dreimauer, regardless of whether the wearer was licit or not. Well, that did also depend on the wearer not getting exposed for what they really were.

The renegade pair had almost reached the inner gate when they were stopped abruptly by a guard who had been just a little more observant than the previous Garrison members they had encountered. He had then proceeded to ask why exactly a respectable member of the Military Police Brigade was pushing around a battered and rather suspicious-looking farmers' cart. (The cart, as it happened, had been found abandoned on a disused part of the railway line, amongst weeds and other detritus that had been discarded from the Vulpis half of Trost. It was something that a legitimate MP would not want to be seen dead with.)

In response, Levi had uttered a few curt lines of bullshit about a strictly confidential delivery that could not be described for the sake of "maintaining the safety of the citizens of Dreimauer". After that they had been let through, but Eren could've sworn he had also heard the characteristic jingle of money exchanging hands just before the gates were winched open.

_So the Garrison's just as corrupt as the Military Police, huh? Good to know._

The first stars had broken past the sun's waning aura by the time Levi finally brought the cart to a stop on a cobbled road. As Eren's teeth rang with the memory of the hellish jarring sensation, he glanced skywards at those celestial lanterns. He recognised one from an astrological map in one of Armin's grandfather's encyclopaedic tomes. It had been one of the numerous dusty books that the blond had excitedly shown Eren, gushing passionately as he explained the various bizarre phenomena demonstrated on its pages.

"This one's Cor Caroli! It's the brightest star in the constellation Canes Venatici… or better known as the hunting dogs!" Eren recalled Armin's voice with the same clarity as he had originally heard it, all those years ago, as the blond bookworm had excitedly indicated an illustration of the same star he now gazed upon.

Eren's brow furrowed in disgust at the sheer aptness of the situation before him. Neither he nor Levi would verbalise it, but it was pretty much a given that Corporal Leonhardt had found out by now that they had escaped, and had responded to that revelation by organising a party of officers to hunt them back down. It dawned on Eren in that moment that his life from now on would pretty much revolve around being hunted by Canes. He would be followed, it seemed, by that metaphorical constellation everywhere.

His frown deepened as his thoughts turned back to Armin. He vaguely recalled Levi mentioning that he would help him get back to his friends, but that notion seemed about as likely as a kitten growing frog's legs, now. Now that he had realised that he was on a one-way road to apostasy.

His mind was steeped so deeply in the psychological mire of resentment that he almost didn't hear Levi's announcement of, "Well, brat, I hope you're happy now. We're finally here."

Before Eren could even think to reply to that, darkness enclosed around him, wrapping around his body like a second layer of obscuring fabric. The view outside the slash-slit windows dissolved into impenetrableness. Levi's footsteps resonated across arched walls. The cart rushed downwards, careering and clattering at steeply sloped intervals (and Eren along with it) before coming to a rapid halt. The Vulpis could still see barely anything. He heard Levi rapping his knuckles against a door with perhaps a slight edge of impatience.

The door was not answered for several minutes. "Tch," Levi muttered as the elapsed time accumulated in the surrounding silence. "What the hell is she doing this time?"

"Who is it that you're taking me to see, exactly?" Eren asked. The curiosity within him was simmering.

"A doctor," Levi answered brusquely. His tone flattened any hope of further questions. "The rest you'll find out when you meet her. That is, if she actually ever turns up."

Silence stretched into the dark aether once again. Almost subconsciously, thoughts of Eren's father began to circulate in the brunette's cranium. He momentarily wondered if this particular doctor would be anything like his father, though Eren thought it unlikely. Grisha Jaeger often remarked that he was a member of an "endangered species"; the country doctor, he had claimed in a voice heavy with comedic pathos, was dying. Especially this far away from Wall Maria, a doctor was far more likely to be a highly educated Canis professional working at a hospital or guild, as opposed to a rather scruffy-looking Vulpis calling door-to-door all the way from Trost to Shiganshina.

When the door did finally swing theatrically open, Eren's body flinched at the sudden _slam _that ensued. "Levi!" a jovial voice bellowed repetitively through the echoing tunnel. "Walls above, it sure feels like it's been a long time!"

"I only wish it could've been longer," Levi groaned, before making a sound almost akin to a gag reflex. "Anyway, Hanji. What in Dreimauer is _that _you have got on your clothes?"

Eren desperately strained to see, but he was once again foiled by his restraints. Not for the last time, he mentally cursed his rescuer.

"…This?" the doctor known as Hanji questioned after a pause. She seemed puzzled that Levi found whatever _that _was offensive. "Oh, this is just some amniotic fluid. My latest project involves live foetuses, you see."

"You're disgusting." Levi audibly shuddered. "It's a good thing I brought extra sterilisation fluid with me, as it's obvious you never clean anything yourself."

"I'm busy!" Hanji protested. "Though I suppose you've been pretty busy yourself, Levi. Do tell! How did your mission go? Did you manage to track him back down? Oh, and what's _this?" _Her last word was punctuated by a sharp prod to Eren's abdomen.

"Oww!" the young Vulpis yowled.

"It talks!" Hanji gasped, exuberant.

"Yes, and I'll explain once we're inside. Otherwise it'd be like begging the Military Police to overhear us." The exasperation was evident in Levi's voice.

"Okay. But hardly anyone comes down here, you know. I'd say we're pretty safe." Hanji's voice receded slightly as she reentered the building.

"I wonder why," Levi muttered sarcastically as the cart rumbled across the porch. There was a final jarring thud as the cart's wheels cleared a step. Eren gritted his teeth for one last time as pain spiked in peaks all over his body. The door swung squeakily shut.

The building was filled with a warm candlelit glow, yet only puzzling fragments of the surrounding room were visible. That was, until, with wrenching abruptness Levi tore the canvas camouflage off Eren's body. The brown-haired Vulpis yelped and scrambled backward, but the belt tied across his midriff held him in place.

"You wanted to know what I was hiding under the cover," Levi announced, "so here you go."

For a moment the atmosphere of the room was devoid of speech. Suspicious, wary Vulpis eyes met glittering nut-brown Canis orbs. Standing against a backdrop of bookshelves swelling under the weight of their tattered burdens was a Canis of vaguely average height (she was more or less Eren's height, but towered completely over Levi). Long hair, pinioned behind her head into a high ponytail, fringed her face with a messy umber-reddish frame. Brass-rimmed goggles attached with numerous levers and lenses balanced atop the crown of her head. Her ears were an even steeper shape than Levi's and sported two rather flamboyant tufts of reddish fur at each tip. Her body was swathed in a lab coat stained so thoroughly through that there was not an inch of the garment's original white hue left. The sleeves were rolled up almost to the shoulder, and her forearms were encased up to the elbow in half-clotted blood and another dripping liquid, which Eren guessed was the aforementioned amniotic fluid.

It was not her bloodstained limbs and clothing that most unsettled Eren, however. Her eyes, even seen through thick oval lenses, had an almost ravenous glint of curiosity in them. She seemed to be experiencing too much excitement to accurately show through her features.

"I can't believe it, Levi!" Hanji giggled in much the same way as a child given a packet of toffees would. "You're too kind! And my birthday's already long gone! I had no idea you knew just how badly I wanted a Vulpis specimen!"

"S-specimen?" Eren stuttered in outrage.

He would have spoken some more colourful words, had Levi not curtly interjected. "Hanji, that's not why he's here. And haven't you forgotten your… that is, _our_ ethos? Vulpes are perfectly ordinary creatures that deserve respect, not toys for you to play with."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Hanji burst out. She was addressing the apology more to Eren than Levi. "I know, and I'm sorry. But Vulpes are so _fascinating! _I've… I've always wanted to find out more about them. That's why I need a Vulpis lab partner, but so far I haven't found anyone who's willing…" She hung her head, seemingly acknowledging the futility of her desires.

Eren could practically hear Levi's eyes rolling as he spoke. "Whatever. I don't need your sentimental sob stories right now. We need to sit down and chat…" The words decayed as they left his tongue upon realising the extent of the entropy that governed the room.

Even by Eren's much more tolerant standards, the room was grotesquely messy. Every surface, including the walls and even the ceiling, was obscured by _things_ – filthy tomes, stacks of papers written and drawn on in an excitable scrawl, and numerous glass cases. The latter were strewn and suspended all across the room, and were filled with the most arcane bits of various oddball animals; eyes, jaws, skeletons and surreal appendages, all floating languorously in murky preservation fluid. In one notably larger container, however, the occupant was still alive. The round eyes of a ginger kitten gazed out with a mixture of balefulness and curiosity at the new arrivals, before reangling itself so it could lick clean one of its back thighs, which, Eren noticed, was a mottled amphibian green-brown coated with a glossy meniscus.

Hanji had noticed the direction of the young Vulpis's attention, and appeared to perk up a little as she provided her explanation. "Oh, that's Sawney and Bean over there. Sawney's the little kitty cat, Bean's the frog. They get along pretty well with each other… but then again I suppose they have to, seeing as they share a body and all." She chuckled, the most subtle dosage of mania evident in her voice.

"À la Frankenstein, I suppose?" Levi muttered, unimpressed.

"No way! Sawney and Bean aren't roadkill. How rude," the scientist huffed. "Bean did die, though…" She sniffed and leant back theatrically in a typical gesture of despair. "It was the worst week of my life… just simply awful. I grieved for days, then cried, then grieved again…" She then suddenly shot upwards, her eyes brimming with vehemence and determination. "Still, I wasn't about to let him die in vain! Sawney, you see, had been born without his two back legs. So I grafted Bean's onto him. It wasn't easy, but I managed it… and now Bean gets to live on as part of Sawney, and Sawney finally gets his back legs! So everyone's happy!" Hanji clasped her hands beside her head and gazed down adoringly at Sawney-Bean. Sawney's malevolent kitten face met her eyes with an expression that demonstrated anything but happiness.

"Hanji." The boredom in Levi's voice was palpable. "I don't give a fuck about your ridiculous experiments. I've come to you for a very specific reason."

"Oh, oh, of course!" said Canis gushed. "And it's to do with him, right?" She indicated Eren.

Levi sighed, exasperated. "Hanji, this is Eren Jaeger, a Vulpis I… encountered during the course of my mission. Eren, this is Hanji Zoë. She's one of my associates. That's the basics."

A momentary pause ensued as Levi grabbed the nearest chair and shoved the memorabilia cluttering the seat (whilst ignoring Hanji's squawk of indignation) onto the floor. He withdrew a dark bottle fitted with a spray mechanism from inside the jacket of his illegitimately obtained uniform and sprayed the chair down thrice before he sat down. He also sprayed his hands for good measure.

Eren caught a whiff of the repugnant steriliser and coughed. He realised that this was the same scent Levi had been cloaked in the first time they had met, on that seemingly everyday train journey. It was these same synthetic fumes that had obscured his true scent when he had disguised himself as a Vulpis.

Hanji's chestnut orbs flitted between the two men before her. "So, what happened between you two, then, eh? I never heard that Erwin sent you out to bring back another. I thought it was just Marco you were looking for."

"It was," Levi growled contemptuously. "And I still have no idea where the fuck he is. You might know that he's been AWOL since he disappeared suddenly in Schornstein, that suffocating industrial district out beyond Wall Rose. Ymir was supposed to be looking out for him, but it looks like she failed on that account. Anyway, Erwin told me to head out there to see if I could pick up any leads, and so I did. _Apparently,"_ he uttered, drawing out each syllable of the word with spitting cynicism, "he was being held in Canis Trost, but it turned out that I'd been fucking duped all along. Those factory workers didn't know what the hell they were talking about. All I found in the Military Police headquarters of Trost was this brat here."

Eren thought about countering Levi's derogatory tone, but decided against it. He was already strapped to a cart, riddled with bullets and scabs, exhausted and naked but for the obscuring fur of his tail covering his groin in a pathetic attempt at maintaining his dignity. He barely had the energy to care anymore.

The scientist gazed at Eren. "What were you in there for?"

"For being born a Vulpis," the brunette replied bitterly, glaring at Hanji.

"More like for being born an idiot," Levi corrected. "You were trying to subvert society by biting and chasing people. You really are just a childish brat. Someday you'll learn how to be a bit more _subtle_ about these things."

Eren did not reply or even meet Levi's gaze.

"But something still doesn't add up," Hanji muttered speculatively, leaning against the bookcase behind her whilst stroking her chin. "Why did you bust him out, Levi? Surely getting him all the way here must've been a bit of an inconvenience, and you're not the kind of guy who tries to inconvenience himself at every passing opportunity –"

"Hell, he was an inconvenience," Levi interrupted. "I considered dropping and abandoning him every second I was with him. But…" He paused, turning his face into the shadow of the flickering candlelight so that his expression could not be seen. "The kid has potential. It's been a while since we've had any new recruits. And I think… I think if we manage to slap a bit of discipline into him, he'd make a good addition to the Survey Corps."

Eren stiffened. _What?! _He might've guessed that he'd eventually run into some sort of covert group of conspirators by teaming up with Levi; the latter never did seem to be the "lone wolf" type. But he would've never guessed that the Canis dissident had been considering him for his own organisation from the onset.

A suspecting smirk crossed Hanji's features. "Levi, I know you, and I think that it was probably more than that. It was something else. Something a bit more personal."

Levi met Hanji's gaze once again. Nothing showed in his metallic irises but for incredulity. "And I think you don't know what the fuck you're talking about. But anyway, that's beside the point." The noirette stood up abruptly. "The reason why we're here is because Eren needs treatment for his wounds. He was shot twice, and I think he's going to need some patching up after what I did to him, too."

Hanji's eyes widened, more in curiosity than shock. "What did you do?"

"Nothing major. Besides, it was necessary."

"Alright then. Well, it _has _been a while since I carried out an operation, so this should be fun!" Hanji rubbed her blood-encrusted hands vigorously.

_Oh, walls of Dreimauer… _Eren almost regretted not taking his chances with the Military Police surgeon. At least there might have been a higher chance of surviving the ordeal in that situation.

"Please, Hanji. Wash your hands first. Oh, and change your lab coat." Levi's mouth, which although seemed perpetually curled in disgust, seemed to curl even further whenever he glanced at Hanji.

"Oh… um. This is the only coat I've got," Hanji replied, a sheepish giggle escaping her teeth.

"Tch. I'll just sanitise it then, and we'll have to take our chances with that. But seriously, _do _wash your hands."

"Fine, fine," the scientist relented as she briskly left the room, dredges of bodily fluids cascading from her fingertips as she sauntered out.

"Are… are we seriously going through with this?" Eren could feel his face paling.

"We've got no other choice, brat." Despite the dogma of his words, Eren could sense Levi's speech faltering, just ever so slightly. "There's no-one else in Dreimauer who I can trust. It's not exactly a death sentence. When she operated on me before, my sutures fell out once or twice, but I didn't die. Miracles can occur twice, or so they say."

Eren took what solace he could from that as Levi began to rid the desk behind him of half-eaten plates of food, piles of notes, stacks of books and esoteric specimens. He sprayed every square inch of the surface with the steriliser before moving the room's sole candle over to the edge of the desk. He used it to light another candle, which he placed at the opposite end of the oaken table.

"Don't tell me," Eren spoke queasily, "that's the operating table, isn't it?"

"Well, it's not like I'm going to set foot in her laboratory. And I have reason to believe that, unfortunately, this might well be the cleanest room in Hanji's house."

"You're absolutely right about that!" Hanji chirped. She emerged from the adjacent room so suddenly Eren jumped. "This is the only room I think I've ever actually cleaned… and I think that was because Sawney got stuck behind a bookcase. I turned the whole thing inside out trying to look for him, so in the end I had to put it all back again."

"Are Sawney and fucking Bean all you really ever think about?" Levi grunted. He did not wait for a response. "Did you wash that filth off your hands?"

"Sure did," Hanji replied, proffering her hands. Levi grimaced down at them. Although they were noticeably clearer, specks of blood were still inhabiting the folds of her skin.

The black-haired Canis sprayed her at arm's length before the scientist had time to protest. "I suppose we'll have to take our chances with that." His facial expression could only be described as warily reluctant. He met Eren's gaze for a brief second, and the most momentary flash of what appeared to be vaguely disguised concern passed across the Canis's steel-framed pupils. But it just as likely could've been the candlelight reflecting off Levi's cornea, or Eren's own exhaustion affecting his perception.

Levi turned back to Hanji, his tone demanding. "Well, Hanji? Are you going to use your knowledge to do something _useful _for a change rather than just pissing about trying to transmute pigeons into stags?"

"What I do _is _useful," Hanji objected, though her voice no longer held the same level of chagrin as before. "And you'd see that if you looked a bit harder, Levi. Still, I'm ready. Let's do this."

Hanji reached eagerly towards Eren, but Levi interrupted before she could do so.

"I'm just hoping here for his sake that you've got some anaesthetic."

"Oh…" The brunette Canis scratched the back of her left ear in a manner that filled Eren with dread. "Well, I definitely don't have any chloroform. But I'm pretty sure I have some morphine left over…" She immediately dashed to a drawer set in the side of one of the numerous desks cluttering the room, rummaged noisily, and pulled out first an ostentatiously large hypodermic needle and second a glass vial of clear liquid. The vial was labelled in bold capital letters: "MORPHINE: FOR DREAMS WITHOUT PAIN". Clearly this was a sort of cheesy brand gimmick, deriving from the fact that morphine was named after an ancient god of dreams.

As Hanji filled that unnecessarily macabre-looking needle with morphine, Levi unbuckled Eren and carried him over to the makeshift operating table. The Canis strapped him on again, even tighter than before. The Vulpis squirmed as the strap constricted his bladder.

"Do we have to do it like this?" His voice was shamefully puny. _This is not how I want to die, _he reflected fearfully. _Any other way would be fine, but this…_

Levi closed his eyes. His usual derisive tone was surprisingly absent from his voice as he spoke: "If there was another, better way, don't you think we'd be doing it already?"

It was at that point that Hanji came over. Her goggles had been positioned over her glasses, and were whirring with mechanical energy. For once, she appeared serious, but that only served to unsettle Eren even further.

"Where did you say he was shot, again?"

"The shoulder and lower abdominals. Don't ask me where, exactly, but that MP Leonhardt certainly went out of her way to inflict the greatest amount of pain possible without hitting any of his vital organs."

"Okay. I think I know where to look." Another drawer rumbled open, and Hanji's hand emerged along with a scalpel. Eren attempted to ignore the flashes of candle flame caught on the honed blade, and tried his utmost not to imagine it sinking into his own flesh.

"Right, okay then, Eren!" The doctor's voice bounced back to its usual exuberant octave. "I'm going to inject the morphine now. It's not gonna be enough to knock you out, just because that kind of dosage might mean that you asphyxiate. So you'll be conscious throughout, okay? Well, I mean, you'll be pretty woozy. It's unlikely that you'll notice anything. But just in case, don't, y'know, look down." A short giggle followed, but it was barely humorous.

The sharp pain in Eren's arm that followed was unexpected, but it ebbed away quickly. Adrenalin channelled the morphine rapidly through his capillaries, allowing the drug to work its pain-killing magic. A soothing sensation blanketed his entire body. He felt his aches sputtering out one by one like starved fires until he felt absolutely nothing. He leant his numb body back and closed his eyes slowly.

The experience was almost oneiric. Morphine was living up to its name.

_Perhaps dying like this wouldn't be the worst way to go after all, _he mused.

Beyond that, his thoughts lost all coherence.


	6. Chapter 6: Verisimilitude

**Hello again, Le Fez-Wearing Husky here. Oh, and happy 2016! ...Even though we're now almost a month into it. 2015 seems like aeons ago already, and consequently, so does the time I last updated. Ahem. I am terribly sorry for this delay, I had meant to get this chapter out two weeks ago, but video gam- I-I mean homework, got in the way.**

**Well, I suppose we can all agree what my new year's resolution should be. And thus, you can now expect Chapter Seven in by, at the very latest, the 20th February. If I miss this deadline, please, feel free to send me an angry PM. I probably deserve it...**

**Anyway, that's enough of that. Here I (finally) present to you the sixth chapter! I hope you very much enjoy it, but just before you begin, I should probably mention that there is a trigger warning for force-feeding on this chapter. I know, it seems fairly mild and this story is already M-rated anyway, so perhaps it shouldn't really matter, but you know, just in case.**

**See you next time!**

**-Le Fez-Wearing Husky**

* * *

**Chapter Six: Verisimilitude**

"The most beautiful dreams are dreamt by the people who live in the harshest realities."

Or so said an old Vulpis proverb. It was a phrase that had been attributed to many a philosopher, rebel or revered hero, but in the modern Vulpis community of Dreimauer, it was not looked upon with great favour. "So?" many retorted. "So what if you can dream? It won't change anything unless you can actually act on it."

It was a small wonder that with this attitude, the majority of Dreimauer's Vulpis population had given up entirely on dreams. To them, dreams meant nothing but a waste of time and energy. They had learnt that Vulpis dreams were always destined to die.

Quite obviously, this outlook meant that the proverb was rendered defunct. If dreams, the main subject of the proverb itself, were meaningless, then that meant that the proverb itself was meaningless.

But that didn't mean it wasn't ever truthful. In fact, a certain Vulpis by the name of Eren Jaeger satisfied this statement to the letter.

Eren was a Vulpis who still had dreams. And now, the morphine-saturated synapses of his cerebrum were in the midst of conjuring a dream of almost unimaginable vibrancy.

Within Eren's dream, he and Armin and Mikasa stood side by side, arms linked. And along with every other Vulpis Eren knew: Grisha, Carla, his classmates Sasha and Connie, and even Jean Kirstein – they all stood together in a rough semicircle.

Before them lay the gigantic form of a felled dog-headed beast. The gargantuan Canis spewed blood of an egregiously-coloured maroon from the numerous lacerations to its body; and as the liquid erupted forth, it evaporated in midair and billowed rapidly skywards in rolling folds of effluvial crimson steam.

All around the Vulpes and the decaying dog-headed body, shattered houses began to rebuild themselves. Scorched plantlife regrew. The three suffocating, constricting walls that encircled the Vulpes each cracked open, egglike, their foundations disintegrating. As the cascade of rubble settled, three apertures in the once-mighty Walls opened up. Through them, Eren could see. He could see it all. It was an experience more enlightening than opening one's eyes for the first time; it was… it was… It was an experience too beautiful to describe.

Deserts and fields of ice, warm jungles and saltwater seas, all flung from the pages of Armin's books and pasted onto reality. This was it; the world. The _real _world. The thing that the Canes had denied them for so long, but now that they were dead… it was all theirs.

At that point, Eren's oneiric self was giddy with ecstasy, awe, wonder and anticipation. Pumped full of a sense of adventure and mystery, he immediately grabbed the hands of his two friends and leapt towards the beckoning gap in the Walls.

But if there's one thing that all dreams this vivid share in common, it's that they inevitably end at their emotional climax.

For Eren, it was sudden and seemingly inexplicable. He was wrenched back into reality without even the slightest warning. He was not aware of any particular sensation; his dreamscape didn't fade out or dissolve back into the murky ether of his subconscious. There was no transition whatsoever.

And in an instant, his entire world was filled with a harsh, relentless knocking.

The knock was powerful enough to vibrate through the walls of the house. The jar of unidentifiable animal remains on the shelf above Eren's head rattled and oscillated gloopily. He made to wrench himself into a sitting position but froze halfway upwards, his ears upright, rigid, listening. The rattling knock made a second circuit of Hanji's home.

Eren could see little in the dank darkness of the squalid room; in the absence of any candlelight or windows, the entire house was plunged into near pitch-blackness. Yet the Vulpis could instantly sense that neither Levi nor Hanji were anywhere near the vicinity of the house. Although the house reeked of Hanji, and much else besides, the scientists' scent was vicarious and stale. Pretty much all trace of Levi had disappeared; nothing remained of Eren's would-be Canis companion but for the last decaying vestiges of that awful detergent he had sprayed about the place.

_Bastards._ _What was I thinking, trusting Canes? _was his immediate thought. However, it wasn't as fervent as he had expected it to be.

He tried to stem the flow of theories that had begun to surge through his mind: perhaps they had been captured, or perhaps they were acting as decoys to draw attention from him. He didn't understand why he was suddenly allowing so many positive assumptions for the disappearance of the two Canes. Sure, they had saved his life, but they were _Canes_. And nothing could change that…

His awareness was suddenly knocked back into the present as a third round of insistent, almost desperate, rattling recursed through the house.

Eren couldn't glean much information from the knocker by scent alone - the door was blocking much of the air that passed in – but the stranger's odour contained a very, very slight hint of Vulpis. That was enough to make Eren suspicious right off the bat. Seeing as he was currently in a Canis district, even if this person _did_ happen to be a Vulpis, they couldn't possibly have come here without an escort.

And the fact that he couldn't sense any additional bodies beyond the door didn't console him at all.

Eren experimentally stretched out his limbs. His muscles twinged, causing him to wince, but movement was much less painful than before. He could only assume that Hanji's operation had been successful, judging by the fact that he was still very much alive. He guessed (or rather, hoped) that he could hold his own in a fight if need be.

He was also clothed, for a change. It was the type of unassuming outfit that could allow a person to blend into pretty much any crowd: a crisp collared white shirt, a brown jacket reaching his thighs and simple trousers. Not at all extravagant, but at the same time, nowhere close to the proletarian scruffiness of his usual clothes.

He scanned the near-darkness around him for any potential weapon, and quickly clawed up the hypodermic needle that Hanji had left next to the still-open vial of morphine. He crept tensely towards the door as a fourth round of knocking jiggled the preserved eyeballs on the shelves. He was centimetres away from the door when he hesitated, remembering something crucial.

Should a member of Military Police Brigade be lurking beyond that door, they would be able to recognise him immediately. What with Eren's fluffy, rounded ears – about as Vulpis-like as one could possibly get – he was sure to be found out straight away. His eyes fell upon the hatstand to his right, and he took down the nearest hat (a short and rather battered topper) and placed it on his head, pushing the rim down over his eyes. He tried to ignore the fact that its surface was slightly wet and sticky.

Eren gingerly touched the door handle as though it was liable to electrocute him. And then, without any further hesitation, he wrenched the door open.

He gripped Hanji's needle behind his back as his own vibrant green orbs clashed with wide pools of hazel.

The word that immediately jumped into Eren's mind in regards to the person in front of him was _flustered. _His extremities were shaking uncontrollably, his breath came in light, short gasps and a pink tint was visible beneath the prominent freckles on his cheeks. He was about Eren's age, and it was not determinable just by looking at him whether he was a Vulpis or a Canis. His ears were concealed beneath a wide bowler hat and his tail was tucked somewhere out of sight. His eyes were as round as twin monocles, with the thin veins forming webbed crimson cracks.

"H-hi," the boy stammered. "You're Eren Jaeger, right? Don't… don't be alarmed." He tried for a smile, though it was angled at an almost painful degree of sheepishness. "I'm… here to help you."

Eren stiffened, utterly unsure of whether to believe this claim or not. But seeing as the other boy hadn't made a single violent advance on him yet, he adjusted his grip on the needle and relieved some of the tension in his muscles.

"How do you know my name?" he demanded.

"M… Mr Ackerman… or perhaps you know him as Levi… told me. He's, um, my boss, you see. I'm w-with the Survey Corps… those who seek the liberation of all Vulpes." The freckled boy smiled again at that, though the sadness was evident in his voice.

_Just what is up with this guy? _Clearly something was agitating him…

"Can you prove that?" The question came out a little more harshly than Eren had intended.

The boy glanced down bashfully. "I'm afraid not. You'll… you'll just have to believe me. Please." His voice was so quiet it (rather ironically) screamed of pathetic self-loathing and guilt.

Eren admitted that he would've felt sorry for him had his behaviour not been so untoward and suspicious. But there was something missing here, and the freckled boy's hapless attempt at covering it up was fooling nobody.

He appeared to sense Eren's suspicion, as he suddenly lurched forward to grasp the brunette's lapels, a single word escaping his mouth, strained in its vehemence: _"Please."_

Through a combination of the freckled boy's utterly terrified expression and the undertones of his plea, Eren could reconstruct the rest of the unspoken sentence: "_Please_, for both your sake and mine."

Perhaps there really was danger here, outside of the threat that Freckles himself posed (or his potential invisible company). Perhaps going along with him really was the safest option…

"I'll come along with you," Eren proposed, trying to maintain as stony a façade as he possibly could, "if you tell me where Levi is."

Freckles looked down. "I don't know. He's somewhere in the area, but he didn't… he didn't contact me directly… From what I gather… he's in a bit of a tight spot at the moment…"

That didn't surprise Eren, and he thought that that statement at least had to have some truth to it, judging by the relative steadiness with which the freckled teenager pronounced his words.

The Vulpis took a deep breath. "One more question… actually, make that two."

"Y-yes?" Freckles seemed to perk up slightly, though he continued to nervously jitter.

"Are you a Vulpis or a Canis?"

"I'm… I'm a Vulpis," came the answer.

Eren didn't allow himself to relax. Although this person did admittedly seem sufficiently Vulpis-like to pass, he remembered Armin's warning. He remembered Levi. He remembered all too easily how lines could be blurred.

"And what's your name?" If it was one that either Levi or Hanji had mentioned in conversation, then perhaps he could be trusted. Perhaps.

Freckles hesitated for a long moment before answering, and then, dropping his voice, muttered, "I'm Marco Bodt."

The name was vaguely familiar; Eren felt distinctly that it had been mentioned in passing, but otherwise it meant nothing to him.

"Okay, fine. Show me where you're taking me." With some effort, Eren managed to discreetly pocket the needle, though he kept his hand close to the handle.

He followed Marco up a steep ramp, enclosed by the curvature of suffocating stone walls. It seemed strangely unfamiliar, but then he remembered that he had made the journey into Hanji's underground lair whilst lying underneath a sheet of tarpaulin. Of course he hadn't seen the place before.

It might've been due to exertion, but the journey up the ramp seemed a lot further than it had coming down. The faint glimmer of light that marked the entrance onto the street outside could have been several metres or several miles away.

Marco stopped a little short of ground level, just as the ramp was beginning to flatten out. He turned around and faced Eren hesitantly.

"I'm really sorry," he muttered. The apology was genuine, and Eren could tell; no-one could fake the expression that was currently held in those eyes. His hazel irises were pools of pure guilt, ashine with the dull glimmer of remorse and helplessness.

That was Eren's first clue, and the needle was already halfway out of his trouser pocket when he registered the second – the slightest of breezes against the back of his neck, bearing down from somewhere above.

_Shit…!_

The brunette whipped around, stabbing blindly with the needle. He felt it sink into something he thought was flesh, but he had no time to determine otherwise. He found himself toppling from the force of something dark and fast, the last vestiges of morphine in his bloodstream delaying the pain for the few milliseconds that passed during his journey to the floor.

After that, all information was lost.

* * *

When Eren came to, he noticed two things.

The first was the throbbing bruise that extended all the way from the bottom of his left cheek to his temple. The pain was dull, but insistent, and when touched the sting was of greater intensity than the average migraine.

The second was the cramp in his knees, or, perhaps of more importance, the cause of the cramp.

Eren sat in a forced foetal position, his body and limbs hemmed in, compacted, on all sides. The oblong wire grid of a tiny cage surrounded him; the front squeezed his toes, the rear his back, and the top pressed down on his head, squashing his ears flat. The position effectively paralysed him; his body was compressed so tightly that it was impossible for him to move any part of him in any direction at all.

Clearly the cage had been intended for some sort of small reptile or bird, though even that would probably be pushing its limit. In any case, the mere fact that an average-sized Vulpis in humanoid form had been squeezed in was a violation both of the standard laws of physics and quite possibly every single civil rights convention in the known universe.

Before he even so much as attempted to consider anything else, Eren decided, quite understandably, to try and get himself out of the cage.

Shifting into Vulpic form did not give him much extra space, not least because his clothes moved to fill the areas that his body had vacated. Shrugging the folds of fabric off his body, he rammed himself into the side of the cage. The wire cuboid wobbled slightly and the door _clanged _against its latch.

Eren coiled backward in preparation for a second, stronger blow. He was about to spring his entire weight onto the wall of the mesh capsule, but suddenly lost all momentum as an abrupt _thud _vibrated through the air.

A young Canis entered the room, short and stocky, with a casual swagger in his walk and a small smirk on his face. Eren instantly identified him as the type of arrogant youth who seriously believed that they had it all going for them and that they were on their way to rule the world. Unsurprisingly, the brunette was instantly reminded of Jean Kirstein, albeit a Jean that resembled a baby elephant rather than an equine. Aside from that, the Canis's most noticeable feature was the apron he wore; a battered, faded clump of fabric speckled with a galaxy of bloodstains, each one of varying levels of egregiousness.

The Canis slalomed through the cramped room, deftly skirting columns of mesh cages similar to Eren's and ducking to avoid contact with fresh dripping slabs of hung meat.

Noticing this, Eren frowned. It seemed a little odd that his captors had chosen to house him in what appeared to be some sort of larder-cum-abattoir. Had he been captured by the Military Police Brigade's butchers? No… even Eren had to admit that the very idea was ridiculous.

As he passed by, the Canis locked eyes with Eren. Surprisingly, Eren could see nothing in his eyes that suggested any sort of disgust or discomfort – every Canis so far that Eren had locked eyes with (which, admittedly, did not number many) had displayed one, or both, of those two responses at some point. Neither did the Canis seem amused at the fact that Eren had been shoved crudely into a cage far too small to contain his humanoid body (and was a tight fit even for his Vulpic form); not a hint of schadenfreude was apparent. Odd. But what was even stranger was the fact that he glanced at Eren without really seeing _him_. It was an aberrant sensation, being on the receiving end of those eyes. He could tell, from just that one glance, that this particular Canis didn't even acknowledge him as something that could actually think for itself.

The nerves in Eren's spine crystallised as he suddenly realised it. This Canis was looking at him as though he were a sack of meat. It was no figure of speech; that was, quite literally, what he viewed the Vulpis as.

Eren's fur bristled as the ocular connection finally broke. The Canis butcher went about his business, pulling down several fat-caked slabs of meat from the ceiling and flinging them over his shoulder. With that, he moved back towards the entrance, but this time, as he passed Eren, he paused.

"I bet you're hungry," he stated, meeting Eren's eyes again in that horribly insidious way. Without waiting for any response whatsoever, the Canis grabbed Eren's muzzle and, before the Vulpis could slam his canines over the intrusive fingertips, prised his jaws open.

For a full second, Eren couldn't move, unable even to shake off his aggressor. He felt the Canis shove a strip of fatty meat into his mouth, pushing it back into his throat so that Eren would have no choice but to swallow it, before suddenly letting go.

Eren's muscles moved involuntarily, hawking up the meat in a jagged reflex action. He coughed, almost vomiting; he felt bile mix with the ferrous taste of the bloody slice in the back of his throat.

"It's good, isn't it?" The Canis spoke with an undertone of pride in his voice. "Vulpis meat is a delicacy in these parts."

At that, Eren actually vomited.

"Not to mention nutritious…" the butcher continued, "which is, of course, especially important where you're concerned."

Eren was so busy spitting bile that he didn't notice the young butcher leaving. He continued to dredge up the remnants of the rotten apples he had gobbled the previous day, but that still failed to remove the taste of forced cannibalism from his tongue.

He coughed twice again for good measure. Following that, only one thought stood out in his mind.

_I need to fucking get out of here._

He resumed slamming his body against the cage door, this time much more forcefully and desperately. After two blows the cage toppled from its stack to the floor, and Eren along with it. The impact caused the door to cave in and swing off its hinges.

Still coughing, he picked himself up, morphing into humanoid form and throwing his clothes back on. He shuddered as his forehead contacted something wet and clammy and wiped ferociously at his forehead. The scent of Vulpis blood permeated the area.

Eren would have thrown up again at that point, but it appeared his intestines had reached their limit. He staggered towards the door, panting, and paused with his hand wrapped around the handle.

"I'm gonna…" he faltered, covering his mouth.

"I'm gonna destroy this place," he croaked.

_This is too much…_

But he wasn't going to let that stop him. He never let anything stop him. Did he?

He shuddered. Why was he questioning himself? He was Eren Jaeger! He didn't run away like everybody else did, like everything could be forgotten and dealt with another day. He faced his problems head-on.

So why did he want to run so desperately?

Well, he knew why. But he still wasn't going to allow it.

"Whoever these guys are… I'm gonna take them down," he muttered, still shakily, but a little steadier than before.

He supposed that would have to be good enough.

Eren exhaled raggedly and twisted the door handle, hoping beyond hope that there was absolutely anything beyond that door other than the tenderised hanging carcasses of Vulpes.

For once, Eren's luck had turned. A rather lavishly decorated corridor lay beyond; metres of oak panelling and landscape paintings stretching out in either direction. There was no sign of any guards, which immediately instilled in Eren the feeling that this escape was going too smoothly. Or perhaps these people really were that negligent about security. They weren't the Military Police Brigade, after all.

Eren could be fairly convinced on that last point; although the Military Police were known for many things, eating Vulpes was not one of them. Their reputation would be in tatters if that was the case.

Picking a direction at random, Eren crept along until he heard footsteps approaching from around a corner ahead.

This prompted him to frantically shove his hands into his pockets in search of something that could be used as a projectile. Of course, they had taken his needle; it appeared they weren't _that _negligent about security.

His only hope was to try for a surprise attack. So he began to frantically search for a good hiding place. Unlike the Trost Headquarters of the Military Police Brigade, the corridors of this place were free of any alcoves that would otherwise make very good hiding places. Convinced that he had no other option, Eren charged headlong towards the source of the noise, his heart pounding out the rhythm of combat.

He rounded the corner, almost falling over himself as he reeled around, and had to force himself into a premature stop as he met eyes with the source of the footsteps.

He was dressed in a waiter's uniform now – black waistcoat and collared shirt – but there was no mistaking it. Those pitiful hazel eyes, the timid tightness of his mouth; it couldn't possibly be anyone else.

"You," Eren growled.

He seemed equally surprised to see Eren.

"Y-you escaped?" Marco Bodt stuttered.

Eren advanced threateningly towards him, and the other Vulpis cowered backwards, threatened.

"P-p-please understand," he stammered softly, "I-I'm r-really, truly sorry… I had no other choice –"

"Don't give me that crap!" Eren yelled. His voice, in its amplitude, seemed to ricochet off the surrounding walls and vibrate through the rooms of the building. His face appeared to have undergone a partial metamorphosis, his nose and mouth creased into a feral snarl. It was a rage so intense it was uncanny; it no longer bore resemblance to any Vulpis emotion. Instead, it was the raw, unrefined vehemence of a nightmarish monster.

Marco almost stumbled in his haste to escape Eren's wrathful aura. "P-please… I-I want to help you…"

"Help me, yeah?" Eren growled. "Help me, like you said you would before?! _Help me, _as in lure me into a trap, imprison me in a fucking _cage_, and let me be force-fed Vulpis meat by one of your cronies?!" Eren's voice at this point was only a few decibels lower than a foghorn. "Heck, you're a Vulpis, right? You should be able to understand…" His voice suddenly trailed off, hesistant, as Eren noticed two pieces of information that wouldn't quite fit together. "Wait a second… Why haven't they eaten you yet…?"

Marco said nothing; he simply continued to stand there, looking helpless.

A resounding _thud _boomed like a clap of thunder down the hallway. Both Vulpes simultaneously flinched, and Marco's ears (which, upon closer inspection, appeared _slightly _too tall and pointed relative to those of the average Vulpis) stood needle-straight. He frantically dove into action, grabbing Eren's arm before he could fight or protest and hurtling back down the corridor in the direction Eren had come.

The umber-haired teen was taken aback by Marco's strength, which was such that he felt as though the tendons in his shoulder were being stretched out of proportion. Eren was shoved without a word of explanation in through the nearest door. A moment later, he slammed against something large and billowing, like an unfurled parachute. He had a millisecond of light to take in a landscape of pristine-white creases before the door snapped closed and everything was swallowed by darkness.

Eren propelled himself into the door, reaching to twist the handle, but it was no use. Marco had locked the door from outside.

_You fucking little…_

A second later, those thoughts would have been broadcast as words. But someone else beat him to it.

"You fucking little Vulcan," a quasi-muffled voice on the other side of the door bellowed. "Just what do you think you're doing?! Sneaking away and trying to slack off when you should be serving customers?"

"I-I was… was running an errand, s-sir!" came Marco's frantic reply. Even though a solid inch of oak, the lie in the sentence was still palpable. "Boris asked me to-"

"I don't give a horse's ass what Boris asked you to do. Get the fuck back to work, no questions asked. Or I might think about serving you on a plate. Vulpes? Hybrids? They won't tell the difference. They're both mindless pieces of filth which have no value whatsoever aside from their meat. Go."

Next came the sound of a calloused palm colliding with the soft skin of a cheek. The impact was so sickeningly brutal that Eren, through a solid barrier of wood, flinched.

A second of silence passed before the brunette heard two pairs of footsteps move off; one exhausted and submissive, the other wroth and powerful. He gritted his teeth.

_Shit._

After several unsuccessful attempts to force the door back open, using both his humanoid and Vulpic forms, Eren gave in to exhaustion, reluctantly allowing the lactic acid in his muscles to drag him down to the floor. He supposed he would have to wait it out until the next person to open this godforsaken storage cupboard appeared, get the jump on them and make his getaway. Because Marco had locked the door in such a way that it had become impenetrable.

"Fuck…" Eren wheezed into the darkness as his body splayed outwards. "Walls of Dreimauer… I didn't ask for this."

As he caught his breath, his thoughts returned to Marco. Just who _was _he, exactly? Eren couldn't tell whether to think of him as a foe or a friend. Marco clearly didn't enjoy what he was being asked to do, but the mere fact that he _was _doing as he was told was proof that he couldn't be trusted. And he had lied, anyway. He wasn't a Vulpis.

Well, he wasn't a Canis, either.

"Vulcan". A derogatory term, only ever used in the context of one particular group.

That group being the apocryphal Vulpis-Canis hybrids.

Like every other citizen of Dreimauer, Eren had heard the tale of the Vulpis-Canis hybrids. Although the overwhelming majority agreed that hybrids might've existed at one point in the history of Dreimauer, the notion that any might still exist in the modern age was regarded with the same level of scrutiny as an ancient folk tale or fantasy fable. Admittedly the story itself was often told in a kitsch manner, and as a result seemed rather convoluted; tales of grand Canis leaders pursuing forbidden love at any cost, regardless of the risk to their reputation and perceived honour. And of course, the tales of what happened to the hybrid children after they were born and discovered had been taken straight out of a theatrical tragedy. Rape, infanticide, and deceit were all treated as synonymous with the interbreeding of Canes and Vulpes, or indeed, with any sort of intimate relationship between the two races.

The fact that no-one believed anyone would be stupid enough to allow a relationship like that to develop was enough to convince the masses that hybrid children simply no longer existed. And for what reason would they? The Canes were seen as too respectable for anyone to suspect that they could be potential rapists, and the Vulpes largely stuck to their own turf, where they felt safe. There was no reason at all for them to mix together.

Well, clearly the fact that Marco existed was proof that some still denied that simple logic.

Eren could spare some sympathy for him. From what he had heard, the hybrids had it even worse than the Vulpes. The Vulpes were, at least, regarded as natural beings that were still able to fit into society, even though they were flung right at the bottom of the heap.

Hybrids, however, were seen as abominations. Unnatural oddities. Mutated threads that failed to fit into the fabric of society.

It was no wonder that Marco had lied, really. He was in hiding. Of course he wasn't going to tell a stranger that he was a hybrid. If he allowed his secret out, he would most likely end up dead at the hands of some angry mob.

Eren then recalled what Marco had said about Levi. Clearly he knew _something _about what was going on. And Eren intended to find out.

He sat up, his eyes narrowing as he stared into the blackness around him. He stood up, now rested, his body now twitching with purpose.

He was going to break down this door if it took all the energy in his body. And he was going to find Marco, and confront him on his own terms.

From there, he'd hopefully find Levi. And, depending on the circumstances, he would punch that annoyingly aloof face of his in.

Eren pulled back and made to dash at the dark mass outlined in soft gold before him, ready to throw all his weight on it.

But he never quite got there.

He stopped halfway, staggered and fell under his own momentum.

He scrambled to a crouch, listening hard, checking furiously whether or not what he had just heard was real, or just some freaky aural illusion.

But sure enough, he heard it again.

Someone was knocking on the door.


End file.
